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Benjamin Franklin 



By 
JOHN S. C. ABBOTT 




New York '^ 
Dodd, Mead and Company 

1903 



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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDles Received 

JUN 16 1904 
Copyrleht Entry 

CLASS M XXo. No. 

' COPY B 






Copyright, 1876 

BY 

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 
Copyright, 1904, 

BY 

LAURA ABBOTT BUCK 



1 1 c 

C 4. 



::i 



PREFACE. 



Next to George Washington, we must write, 
upon the Catalogue of American Patriots, the name 
of Benjamin Franklin. He had so many virtues that 
there is no need of exaggerating them ; so few 
imperfections that they need not be concealed. The 
writer has endeavored to give a perfectly accurate 
view of his character, and of that great struggle, in 
which he took so conspicuous a part, which secured 
the Independence of the United States. Probably 
there can no where be found, within the same limits, 
so vivid a picture of Life in America, one hundred 
years ago, as the career of Franklin presents. 

This volume is the twelfth of the Library Series 
of Pioneers and Patriots. The series presents a 
graphic history of our country from its discovery. 

1. Christopher Columbus reveals to us the West 
Indies, and gives a narrative of wonders unsurpassed 
in fact or fable. 

2. De Soto conducts us to Florida, and leads us 



iv PREFACE. 



• 



through scenes of romance, crime, blood and woe — 
through many Indian tribes, across the continent, to 
the Mississippi, where he finds his melancholy grave. 

3. La Salle, and his heroic companions, traversed 
thousands of miles of majestic lakes and unknown 
rivers, and introduces us to innumerable barbaric 
tribes. There is no other writer, who, from his own 
personal observation, can give one so vivid an idea 
of Life in the Indian village and wigwam. 

4. Miles Standish was the Captain of the Pilgrims. 
He conducts us in the May Flower, across the 
Atlantic, lands us at Plymouth, and tells the never 
to be forgotten story of the heroism of our fathers 
in laying the foundations of this great republic. 

5. CapteAn Kiddy and the Buccaneers, reveal to us 
the awful condition of North and South America, 
when there was no protecting law here, and when 
pirates swept sea and land, inflicting atrocities, the 
narrative of which causes the ear which hears it to 
tingle. 

6. Peter Stuyvesant takes us by the hand, and 
introduces us to the Dutch settlement at the mouth 
of the Hudson, conveys us, in his schooner, up the 
solitary river, along whose forest-covered banks 
Indian villages were scattered ; and reveals to us all 
the struggles, by which the Dutch New Amsterdam 
was converted into the English New York. 



PREFACE. V 

f, Benjamin Franklin should chronologically take 
his place here. There is probably not, in the com- 
pass of all literature, a biography more full of enter- 
tainment and valuable thought, than a truthful 
sketch of the career of Benjamin Franklin. He 
leads us to Philadelphia, one hundred and fifty years 
ago, and makes us perfectly familiar with life there 
and then. He conducts us across the Atlantic to the 
Court of St. James, and the Court of Versailles. 
There is no writer, French or English, who has given 
such vivid sketches of the scenes which were wit- 
nessed there, as came from the pen of Benjamin 
Franklin. For half a century Franklin moved amid 
the most stupendous events, a graphic history of 
which his pen has recorded. 

8. George Washington has no superior. Humanity 
is proud of his name. He seems to have approached 
as near perfection as any man who ever lived. In 
his wonderful career we became familiar with all the 
struggles of the American Revolution. With a 
feeble soldiery, collected from a population of less 
than three millions of people, he baffled all the efforts 
of the fleets and armies of Great Britain, the most 
powerful empire upon this globe. 

9. Daniel Boone was the Cowper of the wilderness ; 
a solitary man loving the silent companionship of 
the woods. He leads us across the Alleghanies to 



VI PREFACE. 

• 

the fields of Kentucky, before any white man's foot 
had traversed those magnificent realms. No tale of 
romance could ever surpass his adventures with the 
Indians. 

10. Kit Carson was the child of the wilderness 
He was by nature a gentleman, and one of the most 
lovable of men. His weird-like life passed rapidly 
away, before the introduction of railroads and steam- 
boats. His strange, heroic adventures are ever read 
with astonishment, and they invariably secure for 
him the respect and affection of all who become fa- 
miliar with his name. 

1 1. Paul Jones was one of the purest patriots, and 
perhaps the most heroic naval hero, to whom any 
country has given birth. He has been so traduced, 
by the tory press of Great Britain, that even the 
Americans have not yet done him full justice^ This 
narrative of his astonishing achievements will, it is 
hoped, give him rank, in the opinion of every reader, 
with Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Lafayette. 

12. David Crockett was a unique man. There is 
no one like him. Under no institutions but ours could 
such a character be formed. From a log hut, more 
comfortless than the wigwam of the savage, and 
without being able either to read or write, he enters 
legislative halls, takes his seat in Congress, and makes 
the tour of our great cities, attracting crowds to hear 



PREFACE. Vli 

him speak. His life is a wild romance of undoubted 
truth. 

Such is the character of this little library of 
twelve volumes. The writer, who has now entered 
the evening of life, affectionately commends them to 
the young men of America, upon whose footsteps 
their morning sun is now rising. The life of each 
one, if prolonged to three score years and ten, will 
surely prove a stormy scene. But it may end in a 
serene and tranquil evening, ushering in the glories 
of an immortal day. 

John S. C. Abbott. 

Faui Haven. Conn. 



\ 



CON TENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Parentage and Early Life. 

FAM 

The parentage of Franklin — His parents emigrate to America- 
Character of his father — Abiah Folger, his mother — Birth 
and baptism — Influence of his Uncle Strong — Of the Whis 
tie— Childish exploits — Uncongenial employment — Skill in 
swimming — Early reading — Boston at that time — An in- 
dentured apprentice — Form of Indenture — Enters a print- 
ing office — Fondness for reading — Anecdotes — Habits of 
study — Fondness for argument — Adopts a vegetable diet— 
The two creeds II 



CHAPTER II. 

Developments of Character, 

Views of the Sabbath — Writings of Collins and Shaftsbury — The 
creed of Collins — Franklin at sixteen — The Courant — De- 
nnnciations of the paper — Franklin's mode of acquiring the 
art of composition — His success as a writer — The Editor 
prosecuted — Benjamin becomes Editor and Publisher — ^Jeal- 
ousy of his brother — The runaway apprentice — The voyage 
to New York — Great disappointment— Eventful Journey to 
Philadelphia — Gloomy prospects — The dawn of brighter 
days. 31 



6 CONTENTS. 

V 

CHAPTER III. 

Excursion to England. 

tkiom 

Attention to dress — Receives a visit from Gov. Keith- His viiit 
to Boston — Collins returns to Philadelphia vith him — Sir 
William Keith's aid — Excursions on the Sabbath — Difficulty 
with Collins — Spending Mr. Vernon's money — His three 
friends — Engagement with Deborah Read — Voyage to Eng- 
land — Keith's deceit — Ralph — Franklin enters a printing 
house in London 59 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mental and Moral Conflicts, 

Faithfulness to work — Neglect of Deborah Read — Treatise on 
Liberty and Necessity — Skill in swimming — Return to 
America — Marriage of Miss Read — Severe sickness — Death 
of Mr. Denham — Returns to Keimer's employ — The Junto 
— His Epitaph — Reformation of his treatise on Liberty and 
Necessity — Franklin's creed 75 

CHAPTER V. 

The Dawn of Prosperity. 

Franklin takes a house — His first job — His industry — Plans a 
Newspaper — Enters the list as a writer — Advocates a Paper 
currency — Purchases Keimer's paper — Character of Meredith 
— Struggles of the firm — Unexpected assistance — Dissolves 
partnership with Meredith — Franklin's energetic conduct — 
His courtship, and marriage — Character of Mrs. Franklin — 
Increase of luxury — Plans for a library — Prosperity of Penn- 
sylvania — Customs in Philadelphia — Style of dress in 1726— 
Franklin's social position in Philadelphia — His success — ^A 
hard student 101 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER VI. 
Religious and Philosophic Views, 

PACB 

Studioas habits — New religion — Personal habits — Church of the 
Free and Easy — His many accomplishments — The career of 
Hemphall — Birth and Death of Franklin's son — The Min- 
istry of Whitefield — Remarkable friendship between the phil- 
osopher and the preacher — Prosperity of FrankAin — His con- 
vivial habits — The defense of Philadelphia — Birth of a 
daughter— The Philadelphia Academy 126 

CHAPTER VIJ. 

Thg jy-adesman b^^mes a Philosopher. 

Franklin appointed Indian commissioner — Effects of Rum — 
Indian logic — Accumul^^ting honors — Benevolent enterprises 
— Franklin's counsel to Tennent — Efforts for city improve- 
ment — Anecdotes-^Franklin appointed postmaster — Rumors 
of War — Englan<\ enlists the Six Nations in her cause — 
Franklin plans * Confederacy of States — Plans rejected — 
Electrical experiments — Franklin's increase of income — 
Fearful experiments — The kite — New honors — Views of the 
French philosopher — Franklin's Religious views — His coun- 
sel to a yovn^r pleader — Post office Reforms ... 14] 

CHAPTER VIII. 

77ie Rising Storms of War. 

Aristocracv — Anecdote — Conflicting laws of Nations — Franklin's 
scheme of colonization — Proposal of the British Court — The 
foresight of Franklin — Braddock's campaign — Remonstran- 
ces of Franklin and Washington — Franklin's interviews 
with Braddock — Franklin's efficiency — Confidence of Brad« 
dock — The conflict with the Proprietaries — The ncn-resis- 



8 CONTENTS. 

PASM 

tant Quakers — Fate of the Moravian villages — The winter 
campaign — The camp of Gaudenhutton — Anecdote — Re- 
newal of the strife with the Proprietaries — Franklin recalled 
to assist the Assembly — Destruction of the Fort — Claim of 
the Proprietaries — The great controversy l68 

CHAPTER IX. 

Franklin^ s Mission to England. 

New marks of respect — Tx)rd Loudoun — Gov. Denny and Frank- 
lin — ^Visit the Indians — Franklin commissioner to England 
— His constant good nature — Loudoun's delays — Wise action 
of an English captain — The voyagers land at Falmouth — 
Journey to London — Franklin's style of living in London — 
His electrical experiments — He teaches the Cambridge pro- 
fessor — Complimentary action of St. Andrews — Gov. Denny 
displaced, and dark clouds arising — Franklin's successful 
diplomacy — His son appointed Governor of New Jersey — 
Great opposition — The homeward voyage — Savage horrors^ 
Retaliating cruelties — Franklin's efiforts in behalf of the 
Moravian Indians igO 

CHAPTER X. 

FranklirCs Second Mission to England, 

Fiendish conduct of John Penn — Petition to the crown — Debt of 
England — Two causes of conflict — Franklin sent to Eng- 
land — His embarkation — ^Wise counsel to his daughter— The 
stamp act — American resolves — Edmund Burke — Examina- 
tion of Franklin — Words of Lord Chatham — Dangers to 
English operatives — Repeal of the stamp act — Joy in Amer- 
ica — Ross Mackay — New taxes levied — Character of George 
III — ^Accumulation of honors to Franklin — Warlike prep- 
arations — Human conscientiousness — Unpopularity of Wil- 
liam Franklin — Marriage of Sarah Franklin — Franklin's 
Taried investigations — Efforts to civilize the Sandwich 
Islands. , %\\ 



CONTENTS. 9r 

CHAPTER XI. 
TTte Intolerance of King and Court, 

Parties in England — Franklin the favorite of the opposition- 
Plans of the Tories — Christian III — Letter of Franklin — Dr. 
Priestley — Parisian courtesy — Louis XV — ^Visit to Ireland — 
Attempted alteration of the Prayer Book — Letter to his son 
— Astounding letters from America — Words of John Adams 
— Petition of the Assembly — ^Violent conspiracy against 
Franklin — His bearing in the court-room — Wedderbum's 
infamous charges — Letter of Franklin — Bitter words of Dr. 
Johnson — Morals of English lords — Commercial value of the 
Colonies — Dangers threatening Franklin 24a 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Bloodhounds of War Unleashed. 

The mission of Josiah Quincy — Love of England by the Ameri* 
cans — Petition to the king — Sickness and death of Mrs. 
Franklin — Lord Chatham — His speech in favor of the col- 
onists — Lord Howe — His interview with Franklin — Firm- 
ness of Franklin — His indignation — His mirth — Franklin's 
fable — He embarks for Philadelphia — Feeble condition of 
the colonies — England's expressions of contempt — Franklin's 
reception at Philadelphia — His letter to Edmund Burke — 
Post office arrangements — Defection and conduct of William 
Franklin — His arrest 265 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Progress of the Wary both of Diplomacy and 

the Sword. 

Letter of Henry Laurens — Franklin visits the army before Boston 
—Letter of Mrs. Adams— Burning of Falmouth — Franklin's 
journey to Montreal — The Declaration of Independence-* 



lO CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Anecdote of the Hatter — Framing the Constitution — Lord 
Howe's Declaration — Franklin's reply — The Conference — 
Encouraging letter from France — Franklin's embassy to 
France — The two parties in France — The voyage — The 
reception ir. France 393 



CHAPTER XIV. 
The Struggles of Diplomacy, 

Anecdote of Gibbon — ^John Adams — Residence at Passy — La 
fayette introduced — Cruise of the Reprisal — Paul Jones — 
Capture of Burgoyne — Alliance with France — Anecdote of 
the Cake — Excitement in England — Franklin's introduction 
to the king — ^Joy in America — Extraordinary letter of Count 
Wissenstein — The reply — Injustice to Paul Jones — French 
troops in America — Character of John Adams — Franklin's 
mature views of human nature — Anecdote of the Angel- 
Capture of Comwallis — Its effect in England — Prejudices of 
Mr. Jay — Testimony of Dr. Sparks — Jealousy of Franklin — 
Shrewd diplomatic act — The treaty signed 331 

CHAPTER XV. 

Lifers Closing Scenes, 

Advice to Thomas Paine— Scenes at Passy — Journey to the Coast 
— Return to America — Elected Governor of Pennsylvania- 
Attends the Constitutional Convention — Proposes prayers- 
Remarkable speech — Letter to Dr. Stiles — Christ on the 
Cross — Last sickness and death 356 



Benjamin Franklin. 



CHAPTER I. 
Parentage and Early Life. 

rhr parentage of Franklin. — His parents emigrate to America. — Char- 
acter of his father. — Abiah Folger, his mother. — Birth and bap- 
tism. — Influence of his Uncle Strong. — Of the Whistle. — Childish 
exploits. — Uncongenial employment. — Skill in swimming. — Early 
reading. — Boston at that time. — An indentured apprentice. — Form 
of Indenture. — Enters a printing office. — Fondness for reading. — 
Anecdotes. — Habits of study. — Fondness for argument. — Adopts 
a vegetable diet. — The two creeds. 

About the year 1685, Josiah Franklin, with his 
wife and three children, emigrated from Banbury, 
England, to seek his fortune in this new world. He 
was in all respects a very worthy man, intelligent, 
industrious, and influenced to conduct by high 
moral and religious principles. Several of Josiah 
Franklin's neighbors accompanied him in his re- 
moval. 

Boston was then a straggling village, of five or 



,12 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

■ 

six thousand inhabitants. In front spread out its 
magnificent bay, with its beautiful islands. In the 
■rear the primeval forest extended, almost unbroken 
through unexplored wilds to the Pacific. His trade 
was that of a dyer. Finding, however, but little em- 
ployment in that business, he set up as a tallow 
chandler and soap boiler. Four years of life's usual 
joys and sorrows passed away when Mrs. Franklin 
died, leaving six children. The eldest was but 
eleven years of age. This motherless little family 
needed a maternal guardian. Within the year, Mr. 
Franklin married Abiah Folger, of Nantucket. She 
was the youngest daughter of Peter Folger, a man 
illustrious for many virtues, and of whom it has been 
well said, that "he was worthy to be the grand- 
father of Benjamin Franklin." She proved to be a 
-noble woman, and was all that either husband or 
children could wish for. Ten children were the 
fruit of this union. Benjamin was born on the 
sixth of January, (O. S.) 1706. 

He was born in the morning of a" Sabbath 
day. His father then resided directly opposite the 
Old South Church, in Milk street. The same day, 
the babe, whose renown it was then little imagined 
would subsequently fill the civilized world, was 
wrapped in blankets, and carried by his father across 
the street through the wintry air, to the Old South 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY IJFE. 1 3 

Church, where he was baptized by the Rev. Dr. 
Willard. He was named Benjamin, after a much 
beloved uncle then residing in England. This uncle 
was a man of some property, of decided literary 
tastes, and of the simple, fervent piety, which char- 
acterized the best people of those days. He took 
an ever increasing interest in Benjamin. He event- 
ually came over to this country, and exerted a 
powerful influence in moulding the character of his 
nephew, whose brilliant intellect he appreciated. 

Soon after the birth of Benjamin, his father 
removed to a humble but comfortable dwelling at 
the corner of Hanover and Union streets. Here he 
passed the remainder of his days. When Franklin 
had attained the age of five years, a terrible confla- 
gration took place, since known as the Great Boston 
Fire. Just as the cold blasts of winter began to 
sweep the streets, this great calamity occurred. 
The whole heart of the thriving little town was laid 
in ashes. Over a hundred families found therii- 
selves in destitution in the streets. 

An incident took place when Franklin was about 
seven years of age, which left so indelible an im- 
pression upon his mind, that it cannot be omitted 
in any faithful record of his life He gave the follow- 
ing acccunt of the event in his autobiography, writ- 
ten after the lapse of sixty-six years : 



14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

** My friends, on a holiday, filled my pockets with 
coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold 
toys for children ; and being charmed with the 
sound of a whistle that I met by the way in the 
hands of another boy, I voluntarily gave all my 
money for one. I then came home and went whist- 
Hng all over the house, much pleased with my 
whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers 
and sisters and cousins, understanding the bargain 
I had made, told me that I had given four times as 
much for it as it was worth ; put me in mind what 
good things I might have bought with the rest of 
the money ; and laughed at me so much for my 
folly, that I cried with vexation ; and the reflection 
gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me 
pleasure." 

This story, as published by Franklin, with his 
keen practical reflections, has become as a house- 
hold word in all the families of England and Ameri- 
ca ; and has been translated into nearly all the lan- 
guages of modern Europe. 

From early childhood Franklin was celebrated 
for his physical beauty, his athletic vigor and his 
imperturbable good nature. His companions inva- 
riably recognized him as their natural leader. He 
was in no respect what would be called a religious 
boy, but in many things he had a high sense of honor 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. I J 

There was a marsh, flooded at high tides, where 
the boys used to fish for minnows. Much tram 
pling had converted the spot into a quagmire. A 
man was about to build a house near by, and had 
carted a large quantity of stones for the cellar. 
Franklin called the boys together and suggested 
that they should go in the evening, take those 
stones, and build a wharf upon which they could 
stand with dry feet. It was done. And under the 
skilful engineering of the youthful Franklin, it was 
quite scientifically done. Complaints and detection 
followed. Josiah Franklin severely reproved Benja- 
min for the dishonest act, but it does not appear 
that the conscience of the precocious boy was much 
troubled. He argued very forcibly that the utility 
of the measure proved its necessity. 

At the age of eight years, Benjamin entered the 
Boston Grammar School. His progress was very 
rapid, and at the close of the year he was at the 
head of his class. The father had hoped to give his 
promising boy a liberal education ; but his large 
family and straitened circumstances rendered it 
necessary for him to abandon the plan. At the age 
of ten years his school life was completed, and he 
was taken into his father's shop to run of errands, 
and to attend to the details of candle-making, cut- 
ting wicks, filling moulds, and waiting upon cus- 



t6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

tomers. He could write a good hand, could re 
fluently, could express himself with ease on paper, 
but in all arithmetical studies was very backward. 

There is scarcely any sport which has such a 
charm for boys as swimming. Franklin excelled all 
his companions. It is reported that his skill was 
wonderful ; and that at any time between his twelfth 
and sixtieth year, he could with ease have swum 
across the Hellespont. In his earliest years, in all 
his amusements and employments, his inventive 
genius was at work in searching out expedients. 
To facilitate rapidity in swimming he formed two 
oval pallets, much resembling those used by paint- 
ers, about ^ten inches long, and six broad. A hole 
was cut for the thumb and they were bound fast to 
the palm of the hand. Sandals of a somewhat similar 
construction were bound to the soles of the feet. 
With these appliances Franklin found that he could 
swim more rapidly, but his wrists soon became 
greatly fatigued. The sandals also he found of 
little avail, as in swimming, the propelling stroke is 
partly given by the inside of the feet and ankles, and 
not entirely by the soles of the feet. 

In the vicinity of Boston there was a pond a 
mile wide. Franklin made a large paper kite, and 
when the wind blew strongly across the pond, he 
raised it, and entering the water and throwing him- 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 1 7 

self upon his back was borne rapidly to the opposite 
shore. ** The motion," he says, " was exceedingly 
agreeable." A boy carried his clothes around. 
Subsequently he wrote to M. Duborg, 

** I have never since that time practiced this 
singular mode of swimming ; though I think it not 
impossible to cross in this manner from Dover to 
Calais. The packet boat, however, is still pre- 
ferable." * 

The taste for reading of this wonderful boy was 
insatiable. He had access, comparatively, to few 
books, but those he devoured with the utmost eager- 
ness. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was, so to speak, 
his first love. Having read and re-read it until his 
whole spirit was incorporated with its nature, he 
sold the volume and purchased Burton's Historical 
Collections. This consisted of quite a series of 
anecdotes and adventures, written in an attractive 
style, and published at a low price. In those early 
years he read another book which exerted a power- 
ful influence in the formation of his character. When 
eighty years of age he alludes as follows to this 
work in a letter to Mr. Samuel Mather, who was 
son of the author. Cotton Mather, 

" When I was a boy I met with a book entitled 
Essays to do Good,* which I think was written by 

♦ SparlcR* Life and Works of Franklin, Vol 6 p. 291. 



i8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

your father. It had been so little regarded by a 
former possessor that several leaves of it were toin 
out ; but the remainder gave me such a turn of 
thinking, as to have an influence on my conduct 
through life ; for I have always set a greater value 
on the character of a doer of good, than on any 
other kind of a reputation ; and if I have been, as 
you seem to think, a useful citizen, the public owe 
the advantage of it to that book." * 

When Franklin was twelve years of age, the 
population of Boston had increased to about ten 
thousand. An incident is recorded of Franklin at 
this time, which strikingly illustrates the peculiarity 
of his mental structure and the want of reverence 
with which he gradually accustomed himself to re- 
gard religious things. His father's habit, in the long 
graces which preceded each meal, rather wearied 
the temper of his son. Tb^ precocious young 
skeptic, with characteristic irreverence, ventured to 
say, 

" I think, father, that if you were to say grace 
over the whole cask, once for all, it would save 
time." t 

This was the remark of a boy but twelve years 
of age. Though it does not indicate a very devout 

♦ This volume has been re-published by the Mass. S. S. Society. 
f Works of Dr. Franklin by W. Temple Franklin. Vol i,p. 447. 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. I9 

Spirit, it certainly gives evidence of an intellect of 
unusual acuteness. 

Franklin ever spoke of his boyhood as the very 
happy period of a lemarkably happy life. His pe- 
culiar temperament enabled him to be happy under 
circumstances in which others would have been 
very miserable. His affections in after years ever 
yearned toward Boston ; he was accustomed to 
speak of it as ** that beloved place." In one of his 
letters to John Lathrop he wrote, 

** The Boston manner, the turn of phrase, and 
even tone of voice and accent in pronunciation, all 
please and seem to revive and refresh me." 

For two years Benjamin continued to assist his 
father in the business of soap and candle making. 
He was continually looking for an opportunity to 
escape the drudgery of that employment and enter 
upon some more congenial business. Like most 
adventurous boys, he thought much of the romance 
of a sea-life. An elder brother had run away, had 
gone to sea, and for years had not been heard from. 
Benjamin's father became very anxious as he wit- 
nessed the discontent of his son. This anxiety was 
increased when an elder brother married, removed 
to Rhode Island, and set up a soap and candle 
establishment for himself. This seemed to Benja- 
min to rivet the chains which bound him at homQ 



20 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Apparently his father could not spare him from the 
business. Thus he seemed doomed to spend the 
remainder of his days in employment which proved 
to him increasingly uncongenial. 

The judicious father, apprehensive that his son 
might be lured secretly to embark for some distant 
voyage, visited with his son all the varied work- 
shops of Boston, that he might select that trade 
which to him would seem most desirable. Benja- 
min examined all these workshops with intensest 
interest. He selected the employment of a cutler, 
and entered upon the business for a few days ; but 
at that time a boy who was about to learn a trade 
was apprenticed to a master. As a premium for 
learning the business he usually had to pay about 
one hundred dollars. Then after a series of years,, 
during which he worked for nothing, he was entitled 
for a time to receive journeyman's wages. But his 
father, Josiah Franklin, was unable to settle satisfac- 
torily the terms of indenture, and the cutlery trade 
was given up. 

We have mentioned that Franklin was one of a 
large family of children. By the two marriages of 
his father, there were sixteen sons and daughters 
around the family hearth. One of the sons, James, 
had been sent to London to learn the trade of a 
printer. He returned to Boston and set up business 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 21 

on his own account, when Benjamin was eleven 
years of age. It was decided to bind Benjamii. to 
this business. Reluctantly Benjamin consented to 
place himself in such subordination to his brother. 
He was, however, bound to him for a period of 
nine years, from twelve to twenty-one. During the 
last year he was to receive a journeyman's wages.. 
The following extract from this form of indenture 
of apprenticeship, which was in common use in 
the reign of George the First, will be read with 
interest. 

" He shall neither buy nor sell without his mas- 
ter's license. Taverns, inns, or alehouses he shall not 
haunt. At cards, dice, tables, or any other unlaw- 
ful game he shall not play. Matrimony he shall not 
contract ; nor from the service of his said master 
day nor night absent himself, but in all things, as an 
honest and faithful apprentice, shall and will demean 
and behave himself towards his said master and all 
his, during said term. And the said James Frank- 
lin, the master, for and in consideration of the sum 
of ten pounds of lawful British money to him in 
hand paid by the said Josiah Franklin, the father, 
the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, the 
said apprentice in the art of a printer which he now 
useth, shall teach and instruct or cause to be taught 
and instructed the best way and manner that he can, 



22 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

finding and allowing unto the said apprentice, meat, 
drink, washing, lodging and all other necessaries 
during the said term." 

Benjamin devoted himself with great assidvity 
to learn the trade of a printer. The office in which 
he worked, stood at the corner of Franklin avenue 
and Court street. For three years, Franklin was 
thus employed, apparently never seeking recreation, 
and never having a moment of leisure save such as 
he could rescue from sleep or from his meals 
There were at that time several bookstores in 
Boston. The eminent men of that province had 
brought with' them to the New World, literary and 
scientific tastes of a high order. Even then the axe 
of the settler had been heard but at a short distance 
in the primeval forests, which still encircled all the 
large towns. Bears were not unfrequently shot 
from Long Wharf, as they swam from island to 
island, or endeavored to cross the solitary bay. It 
is said that at that time twenty bears were often 
shot in a week. 

Benjamin Franklin, inspired by his love of read- 
ing, cultivated friendly relations with the clerks in 
the bookstores. From them he borrowed interest- 
ing volumes, which he took home in the evening 
with the utmost care, and having spent most of the 
night in reading, would return them at an early hour 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 23 

in the morning, before the master of the shop had 
time to miss them. 

Something in the demeanor of Franklin at- 
tracted the attention of a merchant in Boston by 
the name of Matthew Adam3. He invited him to 
his library and loaned him books. The lad's Uncle 
Benjamin, in England, who was very fond of compos- 
ing rhymes which he called poetry, sent many of his 
effusions to his favorite nephew, and opened quite a 
brisk correspondence with him. Thus Benjamin 
soon became a fluent rhymester, and wrote sundry 
ballads which were sold in the streets and became 
quite popular. There was a great demand at that 
time for narratives of the exploits of pirates, the 
doom of murderers, and wild love adventures. It is 
said that one of the Boston publishers, in the sale 
of ballads alone, found a very lucrative business. 
Benjamin, who found it very easy to write doggerel 
verse, wrote one ballad called " The Lighthouse 
Tragedy." It was a graphic, and what would be 
called at the present day, a sensational account of a 
shipwreck, in which the captain and his two daugh- 
ters perished. He wrote another which was still 
more captivating, and which in all its main features 
was historically true. It was an account of the 
world -renowned pirate, Edward Teach, usually 
called Blackbeard. The reader will find a minute 



24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

narrative of the career of that monster in the vol- 
ume of this series of Pioneers and Patriots entitled 
" Captain Kidd ; or the early American Buccaneers.*' 
One stanza has descended to us which it is said 
composed a portion of this ballad, and which is cer- 
tainly a fair specimen of the popular style then in 
vogue. 

" Come all you jolly sailors 

You all so stout and brave, 
Come hearken and I'll tell you, 

What happened on the wave. 
Oh 'tis of that bloody Blackbeard 

I'm going now for to tell 
And as how by gallant Maynard 

He soon was sent to Hell. ' 

With a down, down, derry down.** 

This was indeed wretched stuff, as Franklin aftei- 
wards admitted ; but it is to be remembered he wafr 
then but a boy of fifteen. Having composed the 
ballad and set in type and printed it, he was then 
sent to hawk it through the streets. This was cer- 
tainly are markable achievement for a lad of his years. 
The eagerness with which both of the ballads were 
seized by the public must have greatly gratified the 
self-esteem of the young writer. 

Addison was a bungler in talk, but every sentence 
from his pen was elegant. He once said, " I carry no 
loose change in my pocket, but I can draw for a thou- 
sand pounds.* Burke said of Goldsmith, ** He writes 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 2$ 

like an angel, but he talks like poor Poll/* Frank- 
lin was by no means a bungler in his speech, but he 
was not fluent. He hesitated, and was at a loss for 
words, but whatever he wrote had a wonderful flow 
of harmony. The right word was always in the 
right place. Doubtless had he devoted as much 
attention to the acquirement of conversational ease, 
as he did to skill in writing, he would have been as 
successful in the one art as in the other. From 
early life it was his great ambition to be not merely 
a fine but a forcible writer. He did not seek splen- 
dor of diction, but that perspicuity, that transpa- 
rency of expression which would convey the thought 
most directly to the mind. 

An odd volume of the Spectator fell in his way. 
He was charmed with the style. Selecting some 
interesting incident, he would read it with the closest 
care ; he would then close the book, endeavoring to 
retain the thought only without regard to the ex- 
pression. Then with pen, in hand, he would sit 
down and relate the anecdote or the incident in the 
most forceful and graphic words his vocabulary 
would afford. This he would correct and re-correct,, 
minutely attending to the capitals and the punctua- 
tion until he had made it in all respects as perfect 
as it was in his power. He then compared his nar- 
rative with that in the Spectator. Of course he usually 



26 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

found many faults which he had committed, but oc- 
casionally he could not but admit he had improved 
upon his original. This encouraged him with the 
hope that by long continued practice, he might 
become an able writer of the English language. This 
practice he continued for months, varying it in 
many ways. He continued to rhyme, though he 
admitted that there was little poetry in his verse. 
The exercise, however, he thought useful in giving 
him a mastery of language. 

Though Franklin wrote ballads, he seemed to be 
mainly interested in reading books of the most 
elevated and instructive character. Locke's ** Essay 
on the Human Understanding," he studied thor- 
oughly. " The Art of Thinking," by the Messrs. 
de Port Royal, engrossed all his energies. But 
perhaps there was no book, at that time, which pro- 
duced so deep and abiding impression on his mind 
as the "Memorabilia of Socrates," by Xenophon. 

Franklin was fond of arguing ; he was naturally 
disputatious. With his keen intellect, he was 
pretty sure to come off as victor, at least in his own 
judgment, in discussions with his associates. But 
the Socratic method of argumentation, so different 
from that in which he had been accustomed to 
indulge, at once secured his approval and admira- 
tion. Socrates was never guilty of the discourtesy 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 2J 

of assailing an opponent with flat contradiction or 
positive assertion. With a politeness which never 
failed him, and a modesty of demeanor which won 
the regard of all others, he would lead his fellow 
disputant, by a series of questions, to assent to the 
views which he advocated. Franklin immediately 
commenced practicing upon this newly discovered 
art. He was remarkably successful, and became one 
of the most agreeable and beloved of companions. 
But ere long he became satisfied of the folly of these 
disputations, in which each party struggles, not foi 
truth, but for victory. It is simply an exercise of 
intellectual gladiatorship, in which the man who has 
the most skill and muscle discomfits his antagonist. 
Jefferson warned his nephew to avoid disputation. 
He says, **/I have never known, during my long life, 
any persons engage in a dispute in which they did 
not separate, each more firmly convinced than be- 
fore of the correctness of his own views." 

Franklin enjoyed marvellous health. His diges- 
tive powers were perfect. He could live upon any 
thing and almost upon nothing without experienc- 
ing any inconvenience. A book advocating purely 
vegetable diet accidentally fell into his hands. It 
urged the pecuniary economy and the saving of time 
in adopting a vegetarian diet. Eagerly he adopted 
the views presented. He could safely do so, had 



'28 BElNjAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

, the author advocated raw onions and carrots. The 
stomach of Franklin would have received them and 
assimilated them without any remonstrance. He 
succeeded in inducing his brother to relinquish one 
half of his board and allow him to board himself. 
Benjamin found that in this way, he saved much time 
and much money. A handful of raisins, a roll of 
bread, and a glass of water afforded him a dinner. 

. This he could dispose of in from five to ten minutes, 
and have the remainder of the dinner hour for reading. 
The hours of the night were his own. He often sat 
up late and rose early, his soul all absorbed in intel- 
lectual vigils. 

There are two platforms of morality, in some 
respects inseparably blended, in others quite dis- 

, tinctly separated from each other. The one of 
these platforms constitutes the low standard of mere 
worldly morality. It says, 

You must not kill, you must not steal, you 
must not lie, you must not slander your neighbor, 
you must not cheat him in a bargain. 

But there is another platform which not only 
includes all this, but which introduces principles of 
an infinitely higher grade. It is the platform en 
forced by Jesus Christ as essential to a life which 
shall be pleasing to our Heavenly Father. Our 
Saviour says. You must love God in whom you live 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 29 

and move and have your being : you must daily 
pray to him with gratitude for the favors you re- 
ceive. In the great conflict, raging here below, 
between sin and holiness, your whole heart must 
yearn with the desire that God's "kingdom may 
come and that His will may be done on earth as in 
Heaven." Imitating the example of your Saviour, 
who was God manifest in the flesh that by His life 
He might show men how to live, you must do every- 
thing in your power to lead your neighbors and 
friends to love God, to avoid everything in thought, 
word, or deed, which you think will be displeasing 
to Him ; and you must do all in your power to 
prepare your heart for that world of purity and love 
where the spirits of the just are made perfect. No 
one can be blind to the fact that these principles are 
infinitely above the principles of mere worldly 
morality. They are not a substitute for those prin- 
ciples, but an addition to them. 

At the age of sixteen, Franklin was disposed to 
adopt the lower of these creeds as his rule of life ; 
at times affirming that it was superior to the teach- 
ings of Jesus Christ ; while again there would be the 
very clear and inconsistent avowal that, in this 
wicked world, something more was needed than 
teachings which he could plainly see seldom, if evei 



30 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

influenced a lost and degraded man, to be changed 
from a Saul of Tarsus to a Paul the Apostle. No 
one can understand the peculiar religious and moral 
character of Benjamin Franklin, without bearing in 
mind these distinctions. 



CHAPTER 11. 

Developments of Character* 

▼ iews of the Sabbath — Writings of Collins and Shaftsb iry— The 
creed of Collins — Franklin at sixteen — The Courant — Denunci- 
ations of the paper — Franklin's mode of acquiring the art of 
composition — His success as a writer — The Editor prosecuted— 
Benjamin becomes Editor and Publisher — Jealousy of his brother 
— The runaway apprentice — The voyage to New York — Great 
disappointment — Eventful Journey to Philadelphia — Gloomy 
prospects — The dawn of brighter days. 

Franklin was never scrupulous in the observ- 
ance of the Sabbath. Still, though he but occasion- 
ally attended church, he at times very earnestly urged 
that duty upon his young friends. It is not proba- 
ble that the preaching he heard in those days was 
calculated to interest him. While a child under the 
parental roof, he ordinarily accompanied his parents 
and seemed to regard it as his duty to do so. 

He now, however, with an increasing sense of 
independence, very much preferred to spend his 
precious hours in his chamber, reading books which 
engrossed his most intense interest. Unfortunately 
many treatises fell into his hands in which unchris- 
tian sentiments were conveyed to his mind, by men 



32 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

of the highest intellectual character, and whose 
writings were invested with the most fascinating 
charms of eloquence. 

Robert Boyle, an Irish nobleman of wealth and 
fervent piety, had established at Oxford a lecture- 
ship, the object of which was to prove the truth of 
the Christian religion. These lectures had found 
their way in tracts to the little library of Franklin's 
father. When but fifteen years of age the boy read 
them, with a far keener relish than most school-boys 
now read the flashy novels of the day. In order to 
refute the arguments of the deists, the lecturers 
were bound to produce those arguments fairly and 
forcibly. But to this young boy's piercing mind, 
the arguments against Christianity seemed stronger 
than those which were brought forward to refute 
them. Thus the lad became, not a positive unbe- 
liever, but an honest doubter. He now sought 
earnestly for other works upon that all-important 
subject. 

The two most important, influential and popular 
writers of that day were perhaps Anthony Collins and 
the Earl of Shaftsbury. These were both men of 
fortune, of polished education, and of great rhetorical 
tnd argumentative skill. Their influence over young 
.ninds was greatly increased by the courtesy and 
candor which pervaded all their writings. They ever 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 33 

wrote like gentlemen addressing gentlemen ; and the 
views they urged were presented with the modesty 
of men who were earnestly seeking for the truth. 

The main attack of both of these men was di- 
rected against the miracles of the Bible. It was very 
evident that, the Divine authority of the Bible being 
overthrown, the whole structure of the Christian 
religion and morality must pass away. Mr. Parton, 
in his admirable Life of Franklin, says, 

"Any one who will turn over an edition of 
Shaftsbury, and try to read it with the mind of this 
merry and receptive printer's boy, will perceive how 
entirely captivating it must have been to him. The 
raillery that was always the raillery of a gentleman ; 
the irony so delicate as really to deceive some men 
who passed for acute ; the fine urbanity that pervades 
even the passages called severe ; the genuine rever- 
ence of the author for virtue ; the spectacle revealed 
of a man uniting in himself all that is good in sense, 
with all that is agreeable in the man of the world, — 
how pleasing it must all have been to our inky 
apprentice as he munched his noon-day crust." 

The practical creed of CoUins and Shaftsbury, so 
far as it can be gleaned from the obscurity of their 
brilliant pages, consisted in the entire renunciation 
of all that is deemed the spirituahty of the Christian 
creed, and the simple enforcement of the ordinary 



34 BENJAMIN iiRANKLlN. 

* 

principles of morality in man's intercourse with his 
brother man. In substance they said, 

" Be truthful and honest. Do not openly oppose 
the institutions of Christianity, for that will render 
you obnoxious to your neighbors. Conform to the 
ordinary usages of the society in the midst of which 
you move ; and as to creeds, let them alone as un- 
worthy of a moment's thought." 

Franklin, at sixteen years of age, became a thor- 
ough convert to these views. He was virtually with- 
out any God. He had no rule of life but his own 
instincts ; but those instincts were of a high order, 
emboldening his character and restraining him from 
all vulgar vice. Thus he wandered for many years ; 
though there are many indications of an occasionally 
troubled mind, and though he at times struggled 
with great eagerness to obtain a higher state of 
moral perfection, he certainly never developed the 
character of a warm-hearted and devoted follower of 
Jesus.* 

* •* For some years he wandered in heathenisl darkness. He for 
sock the safe and good though narrow way of his forefathers, and of 
his father and mother, and his gentle Uncle Benjamin, without finding 
better and larger ways of his own. He was in danger of becoming a 
castaway or a commonplace successful man of the world. He found 
in due time, after many trials, and much suffering and many grievous 
errors, that the soul of a man does not thrive upon negations, and 
that, in very truth a man must believe in order that he may be saved.* 
^-Parton's Life of Franklin, Vol. i,/. 71. 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CUARACTER. 35 

James Franklin was prosperous in his business. 
On the 17th of August, 1721, he issued the first 
number of a newspaper entitled ** The New Eng- 
land Courant." Benjamin set the type, struck off 
the impression of two or three hundred, with a 
hand-press, and then traversed the streets, carrying 
the diminutive sheet to the homes of the subscri- 
bers. The Courant soon attracted attention. A 
knot of sparkling writers began to contribute to its 
columns, and while the paper was with increasing 
eagerness sought for, a clamor was soon raised 
against it. It was denounced as radical in its 
political tendencies, and as speaking contemptuous- 
ly of the institutions of religion. Cotton Mather, 
even, launched one of his thunderbolts against it 
He wrote, 

" We find a notorious, scandalous paper called 
** The Courant " full freighted with nonsense, un- 
manlincss, raillery, profaneness, immorality, arro- 
gance, calumnies, lies, contradictions and what not 
all tending to quarrels and divisions, and to debauch 
and corrupt the mind and manners of New England/* 

Increase Mather also denounced the paper, in 
terms still more emphatic. 

At this time a strong antipathy was springing 
up between James, and his apprentice brother. 
James assumed the airs of a master, and was arro- 



36 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ganc and domineering, at times in his anger pro 
ceeding even to blows. Benjamin was opinionated, 
headstrong and very unwilling to yield to another's 
guidance. As Benjamin compared his own com- 
rjositions with those which were sent to the 
Courant, he was convinced that he could write as 
well, if not better, than others. He, therefore, one 
evening prepared an article, before he was sixteen 
years of age, which, with the greatest care, was 
written in pure Addisonian diction. Disguising his 
hand, he slipped this at night under the door of the 
printing office. The next morning several contribu- 
tors were chatting together in the editorial office, 
as Benjamin stood at the printing case setting his 
types. The anonymous article was read and freely 
commented upon. The young writer was delighted 
in finding it highly commended, and in their guesses 
for the author, the names of the most distinguished 
men in Boston were mentioned. 

The singular nom de plume he assumed was 
** Silence Dogood." Over that signature he wrote 
many articles before it was ascertained that he was 
the author. These articles attracted so much at- 
tention that young Benjamin could not refrain from 
claiming their paternity. This led his brother and 
others to regard him with far more respect than 
heretofore. 



] DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 37 

But the Courant, while popular with the masses, 
became unpopular with the governmental authori- 
ties and with the religious community. As a slap 
in the face of the government, a fictitious letter was 
written, professedly from Newport, stating that a 
piratic ship had appeared off the coast, plundering, 
burning, and destroying. It was then stated that 
the government of Massachusetts was fitting out an 
armed vessel to attack the pirate, and that, wind 
and weather permitting, the vessel would sail from 
Boston sometime during the month. 

This reflection upon the dilatoriness of govern- 
ment gave great offence. The members of the 
Council summoned Franklin before them to answer 
for the libel. He admitted that he was the publish- 
er of the paper, but refused to give the name of the 
writer. The Council decided that the paragraph 
was a high affront to the government, and ordered 
his imprisonment in the Boston jail. Here he was 
incarcerated for a week. Crushed by his misfor- 
tunes he wrote a very humble letter stating that his 
close confinement endangered his life, and begging 
that he might enjoy the liberty of the jail-yard. 
His request was granted, and for three weeks more 
he remained a prisoner, though with daily permis- 
sion to leave his cell. 

During this time Benjamin conducted the paper 



35 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

editing it, setting the type, printing the sheets and 
distributing the copies to the subscribers. He was 
still but a boy of sixteen. James was eventually 
released from prison, but the general character of the 
Courant remained unchanged. Unworthy professors 
of Christianity were incessantly assailed. The vir- 
tues of true Christians — of the multitudes of the dis- 
ciples of Jesus, who were mothers in Israel, or who 
were Israelites indeed in whom there was no guile, 
were forgotten ; while every mean and contemptible 
act of hypocrites and apostates was proclaimed with 
trumpet resonance. 

At length the Council declared in reference to a 
peculiarly obnoxious copy of the paper, that the 
Courant of that date contained many passages per- 
verting the Holy Scriptures, and slandering the civil 
government, the ministers, and the good people of 
the land. A committee of three was appointed to 
report upon the matter. After two days they 
brought in the following decision : 

" We are humbly of opinion that the tendency 
of said paper, is to mock religion and bring it into 
contempt ; that the Holy Scriptures are therein pro- 
fanely abused ; that the revered and faithful minis- 
ters of the Gospel are ignominiously reflected on ; 
and that His Majesty's government is affronted ; and 
the peace and good order of His Majesty's sub- 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 39 

jects of this province disturbed by this said Cour 
ant." 

The committee, therefore, proposed that James 
Franklin should be strictly forbidden to print or 
publish the Courant, or any other paper of the like 
nature, unless it were supervised by the secretary 
of the province. 

James Franklin and his friends, after this decision, 
met in the office of the Courant, and adroitly de- 
cided to evade the mandate by canceling the inden- 
tures of apprenticeship of Benjamin, and constituting 
him the editor and publisher of the journal. This 
precocious lad prepared his inaugural. It contained 
the following sentiments : 

** Long has the press groaned in bringing forth a 
hateful brood of pamphlets, malicious scribbles, and 
billingsgate ribaldry. No generous and impartial 
person then can blame the present undertaking which 
is designed purely for the diversion and merriment 
of the reader. Pieces of pleasantry and mirth have a 
secret charm in them to allay the heats and tumults 
of our spirits, and to make a man forget his restless 
resentment. The main design of this weekly paper 
will be to entertain the town with the most comical 
and diverting incidents of human life, which in so 
large a place as Boston will not fail of a universal 
exemplification. Nor shall we be wanting to fill up 



40 BENJAMIN FRANKEIN. 

• 

these papers with a grateful interspersion of more 
serious morals which may be drawn from the most 
ludicrous and odd parts of life." 

It cannot be denied that Franklin aimed his keen 
shafts at many of the best of men who were conse- 
crating all their energies to the promotion of the 
physical, moral, and religious welfare of their fellow 
creatures. He had a keen eye to search out their 
frailties ; and though he seldom if ever, dipped his 
pen in gall, he did at times succeed in making them 
the song of the drunkard, and in turning against 
them the derision of all the lewd fellov/s of the baser 
sort. 

Benjamin, elated by flattery and success, admits 
that at seventeen years of age he became in his treat 
ment of his brother ** saucy and provoking." James 
was increasingly jealous and exacting. At length a 
very violent quarrel arose between them. The elder 
brother even undertook to chastise his younger 
brother, whom he still affected to regard as his ap- 
prentice. The canceling of the terms of indenture, 
he regarded as a secret act, intended merely to out- 
wit his opponent. Franklin, burning with indigna- 
tion, resolved no longer to continue in his brother's 
employment, and went to several other printers in 
Boston, hoping to enter into a new engagement. 
But his brother had preceded him, giving his own 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 4I 

version of the story, and even declaring his brilliant 
brother to be an infidel and an atheist. 

Benjamin resolved to run away ; for he still felt 
the binding obligation of his apprenticeship, while he 
tried to satisfy his mind that the unjust conduct of 
James entitled him to violate the obligation. There 
was a vessel about to sail for New York. He sold 
some of his books to pay his passage ; and going on 
board secretly at night, he solicited the captain to 
aid him in concealing him, with the false statement 
that he had become involved in a love adventure 
with a young girl ; that she had subsequently proved 
to be a bad character ; that her friends insisted on 
his marrying her ; and that his only refuge was to be 
found in flight. 

His passage to New York was swift and pleasant. 
It is said that having adopted the vegetarian diet, he 
doubted our right to deprive an animal of life for 
our own gratification in eating. The sloop was one 
day becalmed off Block Island. The crew found it 
splendid fishing ground ; the deck was soon covered 
with cod and haddock. Franklin denounced catch- 
ing the fishes, as murderous, as no one could affirm 
that these fishes, so happy in the water, had ever con- 
ferred any injury upon their captors. But Benjamin 
was blessed with a voracious appetite. The frying 
pan was busy, and the odor from the fresh fish was 



42 BENJAMIN FRANKLINc 

exceedingly alluring. As he watched a sailor cutting 
open a fish, he observed in its stomach a smaller fish, 
which the cod had evidently eaten. 

" Ah ' ' he exclaimed, *' if you can eat one an- 
other, I surely have a right to eat you." 

All his scruples vanished. He sat down with the 
rest to the sumptuous repast, and never after seemed 
to have any hesitancy in gratifying his appetite. 

Benjamin tells this story in his autobiography, 
and shrewdly adds, quoting from some one else, 

" So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable 
creature, since it enables one to find or make a 
reason for everything one has a mind to do.*' 

It was in the beautiful month of October, 1723, 
when Benjamin landed on the wharves of New York. 
He was not quite eighteen years of age ; had but 
little money in his purse ; and was without any letter 
of recommendation or any acquaintance in the town. 
The place consisted of but seven or eight thousand 
inhabitants. The streets were the crooked lanes 
which we still find in the vicinity of the Battery. 
Some of the most important were uncomfortably 
paved with cobble stones. Most of the inhabitants 
were Dutch, reading and speaking only the Dutch 
language. There was at that time indeed, but little 
encouragement for an English printer. There was 
but one book-store then in New York ; and but one 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 43 

printing office, which was conducted by William 
Bradford. 

The runaway apprentice could find no employ- 
ment. But William Bradford had a son in Philadel- 
phia who was also a printer. He said to Benjamin, 

" He may employ you, as he has recently lost an 
apprentice by death." 

Leaving his chest of clothes to go round by sea to 
Philadelphia, Benjamin took passage in a small di- 
lapidated shore boat which crept along the coast to 
Amboy. A drunken Dutchman was his only fellow 
passenger. The gloom of the primeval forest over- 
shadowed Governor's Island : not a single cabin as 
yet had been reared in its soHtudes. A squall struck 
the boat, split its sail, and pitched the Dutchman 
overboard. Franklin caught him by the hair and 
saved him from drowning. The sudden tempest in- 
creased into a storm, and the boat was driven fiercely 
before the gale. The surf dashed so violently upon 
the shore that they could not venture to land. Night 
approached. Exhausted, drenched and hungry, they 
cast anchor near the Long Lsland shore, where a bend 
in the land afforded them slight protection while still 
they were in great danger. There were one or two 
log cabins in the vicinity. Several of the men came 
to the shore, but could afford them no relief. They 
had no provision on board excepting a single bottle 



44 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

of bad rum. All night long the tempest beat upon 
them. In the morning the wind had so far lulled 
that they were enabled to repair their sail, and to 
work their way on to Amboy. 

It was late in the afternoon when they reached 
the port. For thirty hours they had been without 
food or water. Such were the perils of a passage 
from New York to Philadelphia in the year 1723. 

Franklin, in the enjoyment of magnificent health, 
slept quietly that night in an humble inn, and awoke 
in the morning with all his accustomed vigor. There 
were still fifty miles of land travel before him, ere he 
could cross the forest covered plains of New Jersey 
to Burlington, on the banks of the Delaware, which 
were seventeen miles above Philadelphia. There 
was neither railroad, stage-coach nor cart to convey 
him through the wilderness. Indeed it was thirty- 
three years after this before the first line of stages 
across New Jersey was established. There was a 
rude path, probably following an ancient Indian trail, 
along which our solitary adventurer trudged on foot. 
It rained ; but still Benjamin found it necessary, hav- 
ing so slender a purse, to press on regardless of 
discomfort. 

Early in the afternoon he came to a hamlet, by 
the roadside, where he found himself so exhausted 
by the unaccustomed toil of walking, and by ex- 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 45 

posure to the rain and the miry roads, that he felt 
it necessary to remain until the next morning. The 
aspect he presented was shabby and dilapidated in 
the extreme ; for he was in his working dress, which 
by the wear and tear of travel had become greatly 
soiled and tattered. He was not a little mortified to 
find that the inhabitants of the cabin, while they 
treated him kindly, evidently regarded him with sus- 
picion as a runaway apprentice. 

In the gloom of that night, poor Benjamin bitter- 
ly repented the step he had taken, and earnestly 
wished himself back again in the home which he had 
forsaken. Clouds and darkness had gathered around 
his path and he could see but little bright beyond. 
Early the next morning he resumed his travels, press- 
ing vigorously along all day. When the shades of 
night enveloped him he had reached a point within 
ten miles of Burlington. He passed the night com- 
fortably in a settler's cabin, and early the next 
morning pressed on to the little village of Burling- 
ton, from which he was informed that a boat started 
every Saturday, to descend the still silent and almost 
unfrequented shores of the Delaware to Philadelphia. 
Much to his disappointment he reached Burlington 
just after the regular Saturday boat had gone, and 
was informed that there was no other boat to leave 
until the next Tuesday. He made his united break- 



ifi BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

fast and dinner upon gingerbread, which he bought 
m the street of an old woman. 

Burlington was on the east side of the river, Phil- 
adelphia was on the west. There was no road be- 
tween the two places, the, communication being by 
the river only. It seemed impossible for Benjamin 
to toil that distance through the pathless, tangled 
forest. He had but five shillings in his pocket. 
With the utmost economy that would not defray his 
expenses at Burlington, for three days, and leave a 
sufficient sum to pay his passage down the river. 

In his distress and perplexity, our young philoso- 
pher, whose renown for wisdom subsequently filled 
all Christian lands, turned back to the poor, aged 
woman of whom he had bought his gingerbread and 
solicited her advice. The good old soul, not insensi- 
ble to the charms of the frank and manly looking 
boy, with motherly tenderness insisted on his going 
to her own humble home. Gladly he accepted the 
invitation. The dinner consisted of what is called 
ox-cheek ; Franklin contributed a pot of beer. 

Walking out early in the evening upon the banks 
of the river, he found, to his great joy, a chance boat 
had come along, bound to Philadelphia and contain- 
ing many passengers. Eagerly Franklin joined them, 
and bidding adieu to his kind entertainer, was soon 
drifting slowly down the stream. The night was 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACI'ER. 47 

dark, there was no wind, and no cheerful gleam from 
the white man's cabin or the Indian's wigwam met 
the eye. It was necessary to resort to rowing. At 
length, a little after midnight, several of the passen- 
gers insisted that they must have passed Philadelphia 
without seeing it, and refused to row any farther. 
They therefore ran the boat into a little creek, built 
a rousing fire, for the night was damp and chill, and 
ranging themselves around its genial warmth awaited 
the dawn of the morning. The light revealed to 
them Philadelphia but a few miles below them. It 
was Sunday morning. At nine o'clock the boat was 
made fast at Market street wharf, and Franklin, with 
one silver dollar and one shilling in copper coin in his 
pocket, stepped on shore. All his copper coin he 
paid for his passage. 

Such was the introduction of the future Governor 
of Pennsylvania to the realm over which he was 
eventually to preside as Governor, and of which he 
became its most illustrious citizen. 

He was unquestionably dressed in the peculiar 
and picturesque costume of the times. He wore 
knee breeches of buckskin, and a voluminous over- 
coat, lined with pockets of astonishing capacity, which 
pockets were crammed with shirts and stockings. A 
low, battered, broad-brimmed hat covered his cluster- 
ing ringlets. His coarse woolen stockings displayed 



48 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to advantage the admirably moulded calves of his 
legs. Every article of this costume was draggled, 
shabby, soiled, and much of it tattered. 

With an indescribable feeling of loneliness, ex- 
hausted with the toilsome and sleepless night, and 
with the cravings of hunger, he sauntered up into 
the town. Coming across a baker's shop, he stepped 
in, and called for three pennyworth of bread. In 
Philadelphia, food was abundant and bread was 
•cheap. To his surprise three long rolls were given 
to him. He took one under each arm, and in his 
hunger the homeless boy walked along devouring 
the other. Philadelphia was then a village widely 
spread out, with surrounding vegetable gardens, and 
containing a population of about seven thousand 
inhabitants. 

Benjamin walked listlessly along as far as Fourth 
street. He chanced to pass the house of a Mr, 
Read, whose very pretty daughter, Deborah, was 
standing at the front door. She was eighteen years 
of age, and was much amused at the comical appear- 
ance which the young man presented as he 
passed by. 

It is not easy to imagine in these days, the state 
of society in these early settlements, hewn out from 
the forests on the river's banks, and with the unex- 
plored wilderness spreading out to unimagined 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 49 

regions in the interior. At night, even from the 
houses of the village, the howling of the wolves could 
be heard as they rushed after their prey. Bears and 
deers were shot in abundance. And Indian bands, 
painted and plumed, were ever swarming through the 
streets. 

Franklin walked along, devouring his rolls, and 
returned to the river for a drink of water. Such was 
his first breakfast in Philadelphia. In the boat was 
a poor woman with her child. Franklin gave to her 
the two remaining rolls, which he could not conve- 
niently carry about with him. 

Not knowing what to do, and led by curiosity to 
explore the town, he returned to Market street, 
then one of the chief avenues of the city. It was a 
little after ten o'clock in the morning. The street 
was crowded with well-dressed people, pressing 
along to church. There was one important edifice 
called the *' Great Meeting House " of the Quakers. 
It stood at the corner of Second and Market streets 

Franklin joined the crowd, and took his seat with 
the vast assembly. He soon fell soundly asleep. 
The hour passed away. The congregation dis- 
persed, and Benjamin was left still asleep. Some 
one then kindly awoke the tired traveler, and he 
again stepped out into the streets so lonely, where 
there was not an individual whom he knew, and 

3 



50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

where almost without money he could find no refuge 
which he could call a home. 

As he walked toward the river, he met a young 
Quaker whose countenance pleased him. Of him he 
inquired where he could find a respectable and 
comfortable lodging. The friendly Quaker led him 
to a tavern, near Chestnut street, called the 
" Crooked Billet." Franklin ordered a frugal din- 
ner, threw himself upon the bed, and slept till supper 
time, and immediately after supper went to bed 
and slept soundly till the morning. 

He had now been from home eleven days. His 
money was nearly expended. His clothes were 
worn ; and almost the only hope remaining was 
the very visionary one that Mr. Bradford's son 
might possibly have some employment for him. 
Early in the morning he carefully brushed his travel- 
worn clothes, his shoes, his hat, and making himself 
as respectable in appearance as possible, went to the 
house of the printer, Andrew Bradford. To his sur- 
prise and gratification he found the father there, 
who had just arrived, having traveled from New 
York to Philadelphia on horseback. 

Benjamin met with a courteous reception, was 
invited to breakfast. He was, however, greatly dis- 
appointed in being informed that Andrew Bradford 
had just engaged another apprentice to take tb€ 



DEVELOPMENTS OF CHARACTER. 5 1 

place of the one who was lost. Mr. Bradford, however, 
stated that there was a man, by the name of Keimer, 
who had recently commenced the printing business 
in the town, and might have employment for him. 
The old gentleman kindly offered to go to the office 
with Benjamin, and introduce him to Keimer. 

They found Keimer a very eccentric looking indi- 
vidual, in a small office, with an old dilapidated press, 
and with a few worn-out types. He asked the young 
man a few questions, put a composing stick into 
his hands, and professed himself satisfied with his 
work. He then told Franklin that he could find no 
work for him immediately, but he thought ere long 
he could employ him. It seems, however, that at 
once Benjamin went to work, repairing the dilapida- 
ted old press, while he continued to board at Mr. 
Bradford's, paying for his board by the work which 
he performed. 



CHAPTER III. 

Excursion to England. 

Attention to dress — Receives a visit from Gov. Keith- -His visit to 
Boston — Collins returns to Philadelphia with him — Sir William 
Keith's aid — Excursions on the Sabbath — Difficulty with Collins 
— Spending Mr. Vernon's money — His three friends — Engage- 
ment with Deborah Read — Voyage to England — Keith's deceit — 
Ralph — Franklin enters a printing house in London. 

The eccentric Keimer soon found that Franklin 
was a workman whose services would be invaluable 
to him. He had no home of his own, but became 
very unwilling that Benjamin, while in his employ, 
should board in the family of a rival printer. He 
therefore made arrangements for him to board at Mr. 
Read's, whose pretty daughter, Deborah, had made 
herself merry but a few days before in view of his 
uncouth appearance. 

Fortunately for the young man, who was never 
regardless of the advantages of a genteel dress, his 
chest had arrived bringing his clothing. He was 
thus able to present himself before the young lady in 
attractive costume. And his address was always that 
of an accomplished gentleman. As we have men 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 53 

tioned, he was ever in his youth, middle life, and old 
age, remarkable for his personal beauty. 

Bright and sunny days now dawned upon Frank- 
lin His employer appreciated his varied and won- 
derful merits. He received good wages. The family 
in which he resided was highly attractive, and he 
there found a home congenial with his pure and re- 
fined tastes. Several months passed away before he 
heard from the friends he had left in Boston. The 
tyranny of his brother had so greatly offended him, 
that for a time he endeavored to exclude from his 
mind all thoughts of his home. He heard, however, 
that one of his sisters had married Captain Robert 
Holmes, the captain of a vessel sailing between Bos- 
ton and the ports on the Delaware. 

In those piratical days, when the master of a ship- 
was compelled to sail with guns loaded to the muz- 
zle, and with sharpened sabres, he was deemed a per- 
sonage of great importance. No weak or ordinary 
man could discharge the responsibilities of such * 
post. Captain Holmes, influenced by the love of 
his wife, wrote to Benjamin informing him of the 
grief his departure had caused the family, entreating 
him to return, and assuring him that all the past 
should be forgotten. 

Benjamin, in his reply, wrote with such precisioB 
and force of logic, that Captain Holmes became sat- 



54 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Isfied that he was by no means so much in the wrong 
as he had supposed. It so chanced that when the 
captain received this letter, he was in company with 
Sir WiUiam Keith, then the Governor of Penn- 
sylvania. He read the letter to the Governor. Sir 
William was charmed with its literary and rhetorical 
ability; and could scarcely believe that the writer 
was but eighteen years of age. 

*' The Philadelphia printers," said he, " arc 
wretched ones. Keimer is a compound of fool and 
rogue. But this young man is manifestly of great 
promise and ought to be encouraged." 

One day Benjamin and his master were working 
together, when they saw two well-dressed gentlemen 
approaching. They proved to be the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith, and Franklin's 
brother-in-law. Captain Holmes, whom he probably 
had never before seen. Keimer rar down stairs to 
meet them, supposing, of course, that he must be the 
man who was entitled to the honor of their visit. To 
his surprise they inquired for his apprentice, and 
went up the stairs to the printing office to see him. 

Benjamin was quite overwhelmed by the honors 
with which he was greeted. The Governor paid him 
many compliments, expressed an earnest desire to 
make his acquaintance, and politely censured him 
for not calling at the gubernatorial mansion upon hia 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 55 

arrival in Philadelphia. The interview was terminated 
by taking Franklin with them to a neighboring tavern 
to dine. There the three met upon apparently perfect 
sccial equality, and very freely discussed many im 
portant matters as they drank their wine. 

The Governor, a very plausible, unreliable man, 
ever lavish of promises without performance, pro- 
posed that Franklin, aided by funds from his father, 
should open a printing office for himself. He prom- 
ised to exert his influence to secure for his young 
proteg^ the public printing of both the provinces of 
Pennsylvania and Delaware. When Franklin sug- 
gested that he feared his father would be either un- 
able or unwilling to furnish the needed funds, the 
Governor promised to write to him with his own 
hand, explaining the advantages of the scheme. 

During the protracted interview, it was decided 
that Benjamin should return to Boston by the first 
vessel. He was to take with him Sir William's letter, 
and thus aided, endeavor to win over his father to 
their plans. 

A week or two elapsed before there was a vessel 
ready to sail for Boston. At that time the social 
rank of a printer was decidedly above that of other 
mechanic arts. There was something sacred at- 
tached to the employment, and it was regarded as 
near akin to the learned professions. Franklin was 



56 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

frequently invited to dine with the Governor. His 
perfect self-possession, his careful dress and pol- 
ished address, united with his wonderful conversa- 
tional powers, rendered him a great favorite with all 
the distinguished guests whom he was accustomed 
to meet at the table of the Governor. 

The latter part of April, 1724, Franklin, then 
eighteen years of age, took passage in a small vessel 
for Boston. His friends in Philadelphia generally 
understood that he was going home merely to visit 
his friends. It was deemed expedient to throw the 
veil of great secrecy over the enterprise in which he 
was contemplating to engage. 

The voyage was exceedingly tempestuous. The 
vessel sprang a leak. For some time passengers and 
crew worked at the pumps night and day. But 
after being buffeted by winds and waves for fourteen 
dreary days, the little vessel cast anchor in the har- 
bor of Boston. Franklin had then been absent from 
home seven months. 

His sudden appearance was a great surprise to all 
the members of the numerous family. It is not sur- 
prising that the young man, elated by his brilliant 
prospects, assumed rather lordly airs. His dress 
was new and quite elegant. He had purchased a hand- 
some watch, which he was not reluctant to display. 
He had in his pocket twenty-five dollars of silver coin. 



EXCURSION TC ENGLAND. 5^ 

Franklin's brother James, from whom he had ru» 
away, was greatly annoyed by the airs of superiority 
assumed by his old apprentice. With a cold and 
almost scornful eye, he scanned his person from 
head to foot, scarcely offering his hand in greeting, 
and soon coldly and silently returned to his work. 
But the imperial young man was not thus to be put 
down. His former acquaintances gathered eagerly^ 
around him and listened with intensest interest to 
the narrative of his adventures. In glowing terms,. 
Benjamin described his new home in Philadelphia, 
drew out from his pocket handfuls of silver which 
he exhibited to them, and with quite lordly dignity 
gave his former fellow-journeymen money to go to 
the ale house for a treat. 

The candid reader will make some allowances for 
the conduct of Benjamin, when he remembers that 
but a few months before, he had run away to escape 
the cudgel of his brother. He will also feel inclined 
to make some allowance for James, when informed 
that he was in adversity, and struggling severely 
with pecuniary embarrassment. The Courant, de- 
prived of the graphic pen of Franklin, was rapidly 
losing its subscribers, and soon became extirct, 

Benjamin's father Josiah, who needed in his own^ 
business every dollar of the funds he could raise, 
gilently and almost without remark, read the letter 



$S BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of Sir William Keith, and listened attentively to the 
glowing descriptions of his son. Soon after Captain 
Holmes arrived. The judicious father conversed 
fully with him, and expressed his opinion that Sir 
William Keith must be a man of but little discretion 
to think of setting up independently, in very respon- 
sible business, a young man of but eighteen years 
of age. 

Though Captain Holmes earnestly advocated the 
views of the Governor, Josiah Franklin, after mature 
deliberation, decisively declined furnishing the ne- 
cessary funds. 

" Benjamin," said he, ** is too young to under- 
take an enterprise so important. I am much grati- 
fied that he has been able to secure the approbation 
of the Governor of Pennsylvania, and that by his 
industry and fidelity he has been able to attain 
prosperity so remarkable. If he will return to Phila- 
•ilelphia and work diligently until he is twenty-one, 
carefully laying up his surplus earnings, I will then 
<io everything in my power to aid him." 

The cautious Christian father then gave his son 
some very salutary advice. He entreated him to be 
more careful in throwing out his arrows of satire, 
and to cease presenting, in the aspect of the ridicu- 
ious, so many subjects which religious men re- 
garded with veneration. He wrote a very courts 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 59 

eous letter to Sir William Keith, thanking him for 
his kindness to his son, and stating his reasons for 
declining the proposed aid. Indeed, Josiah Frank- 
lin was intellectually, morally, and in all sound 
judgment, immeasurably the superior of the fickle 
and shallow royal Governor. 

Sixty years after this visit of Franklin to his 
paternal home, he wrote a letter to the son of the 
Rev. Cotton Mather, from which we make the fol- 
lowing pleasing extract : 

" The last time I saw your father was in the 
beginning of 1724, when I visited him after my first 
trip to Pennsylvania. He received me in his libra- 
ry ; and on my taking leave showed me a shorter 
way out of the house through a narrow passage 
which was crossed by a beam overhead. We were 
still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me 
behind, and I, turning partly toward him, when he 
said hastily, stoops stoop ! 1 did not understand 
him till I felt my head hit against the beam. He 
was a man that never missed any occasion of giving 
instruction ; and upon this he said to me * You are 
) oung and have the world before you. Stoop as 
you go through it, and you will miss many hard 
thumps. This advice, thus beat into my head, has 
frequently been of use to me. And I often think of 
it when I see pride mortified and misfortunes brought 



€o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

# 

upon people by their carrying their heads too 
high." 

There was in Boston a young man by the name 
of Collins, a reckless, dissipated spendthriftv of very 
considerable personal attractions. He had been 
quite an intimate friend of Franklin ; and was so 
pleased with his descriptions of Philadelphia that he 
decided to remove there. This proved one of the 
calamities of Franklin's life. 

Franklin eventually embarked, in a sloop, for his 
.return. It touched at Newport. His brother John 
lived there, pursuing the trade of a candle-maker 
Benjamin was received by him with great cordiality. 
At Newport, among the other passengers, two 
young girls were taken on board for New York. 
They were showy, voluble, gaudily dressed. All 
their arts were exerted to secure intimate associa- 
tion with Franklin. 

A venerable Quaker lady on board called tht 
inexperienced young man aside, and with motherly 
tenderness warned him against their wiles. Though 
he doubted the necessity of this caution, he was 
put upon his guard. When the girls left at New 
Yoik, he declined their pressing invitation for him 
to visit them at their home, and he learned from 
the captain that they had undoubtedly stolen 
from him a silver spoon, an article then not often 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 6l 

seen in common life, and highly prUed. They 
were charged with the crime, convicte((, and it is 
said that they were publicly whipped in the market 
pbce. 

Upon Franklin's arrrival at New Y >rk, Collins 
the playmate of his childhood, was one of the first 
to meet him. In his earlier days he had been sober, 
industrious, and was highly esteemed foi his mental 
powers and attainments. But he had become in- 
temperate and a gambler, and was every day intoxi- 
cated. Reduced almost to beggary, Franklin felt 
compelled to furnish him with money to save him 
from starvation. Penniless he had come on board 
the boat at New York, and Franklin paid his 
passage to Philadelphia. 

William Burnett was then Governor of New 
York. He was very fond of books and had col- 
lected a large library. Franklin also had the same 
taste and had a large number of books which he was 
conveying to Philadelphia, The captain informed 
the Governor that he had a young man on board 
fond of books, and of superior literary attainments. 
The Governor begged the captain to bring young 
Franklin to see him. 

" I waited upon him," wrote Franklin, " and 
would have taken Collins with me had he been 
sober. The Governor received me with great 



62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

civility; and we had a good deal of conversation 
relative to books and authors. This was the second 
Governor who had done me the honor to take 
notice of me, and to a poor boy like me it was very 
pleasing " 

Upon reaching Philadelphia, Franklin presented 
the letter of his father to Sir William Keith. The 
Governor, upon reading the letter, said, 

** Your father is too prudent. There is a great 
difference in persons. Discretion does not always 
accompany years ; nor is youth always without it. 
But since he will not set you up, I will do it myself. 
Give me an inventory of the things necessary to be 
had from England, and I will send for them. You 
shall repay me when you are able. I am resolved 
to have a good printer here and I am sure you must 
succeed." 

Franklin supposed of course, that he could rely 
upon the word of the Governor. He drew up an 
inventory of goods to the amount of about five 
hundred dollars. The strange Governor, who found 
it ver)' easy to talk, ran his eye over the list and 
as if money were a consideration of no moment to 
him, and suggested that Franklin should go to Lon- 
don in person. Greatly elated at this idea, young 
Franklin eagerly embraced it, and the Governor 
directed him to be ready to embark in the Annis, a 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 63 

ship which sailed regularly between London and 
Philadelphia, leaving each port once a year. 

Several months would elapse before the ship 
would sail. Sir William enjoined it upon Franklin 
to keep their plans in the utmost secrecy. Conse- 
quently, Franklin continued to work for Keimer, not 
giving him the slightest intimation that measures 
were in progress for the establishment in Philadelphia, 
of a printing house which would entirely overshadow 
his own. This secrecy which was practiced also pre- 
vented any one from informing Franklin of the 
Governor's real character, as a vain, unreliable, gas- 
conading boaster. 

Six months passed away. They were with 
Franklin happy months. He was in perfect health, 
greatly enjoyed his own physical and intellectual 
attributes, was much caressed, and was engaged in 
lucrative employment. He was highly convivial in 
his tastes, very fond of social pleasures, of the wine 
cup and of the song : and on Sundays in particular, 
the enchanting forests of the Schuylkill resounded 
with the songs and the shouts of the merry baccha- 
nals, led by Franklin, who was ever recognized as 
their chief. 

There probably never was a young man more 
skillful than Benjamin Franklin in plucking the rose 
and avoiding the thorn. In all his festivities he was 



64 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the thoughtful philosopher. Never did he drink to 
excess ; no money was squandered at the gaming 
table. Carefully he avoided all views which he 
deemed vulgar and degrading ; and he made it the 
general rule of his life, to avoid everything which 
would bring pain to his body, or remorse to his soul. 

Still man is born to mourn. Even Franklin 
could not escape the general lot. The drunken 
Collins became his constant scourge. Franklin felt 
constrained to lend his old friend money. He had 
been entrusted by a family friend, a Mr. Vernon, to 
collect a debt of about fifty dollars. This money 
he was to retain till called for. But to meet his own 
expenses and those of his spendthrift companion, he 
began to draw upon it, until it all disappeared. He 
was then troubled with the apprehension that the 
money might be demanded. Bitter were the quar- 
rels which arose between him and John Collins. 
His standard of morality which was perhaps not less 
elevated than that which the majority of imperfect 
professing Christians practice, was certainly below 
that which the religion of Jesus Christ enjoins. Had 
he been a true Christian according to the doctrines 
and precepts of Jesus, he would have escaped these 
accumulating sorrows. 

This breaking in upon his friend Vernon's money 
and spending it, he pronounces in his auto-biogra- 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 65 

phy, to have been the first great error of his life. 
Though it so chanced that the money was not 
required until FrankUn was able to pay it, yet for 
several months he was in the endurance of intense 
mental anxiety and constant self-reproach. 

At length, Collins and Franklin became so antag- 
onistic to each other as to proceed to violence. 
They were on a pleasure party in a boat down the 
river. Collins, as usual, was intoxicated. The 
wrath of the muscular Benjamin was so aroused, by 
some act of abuse, that he seized the fellow by the 
collar and pitched him overboard. Collins was a 
good swimmer. They therefore kept him in the 
water till he was nearly drowned. When pretty 
thoroughly humbled, and upon his most solemn 
promise of good behavior, he was again taken on 
board. Seldom after this was a word exchanged 
between them. Collins, deeply indebted to Franklin, 
accepted of some business offer at Barbadoes. He 
sailed for that island, and was never heard of more. 

Almost every young man has a few particular 
friends. The three most intimate companions of 
Benjamin Franklin were young men of his own rank 
and age, of very dissimilar characters, but having a 
common taste for business. They were all clerks. 
One of these, Joseph Watson, was, according to 
Franklin's descript'.on, " a pious, sensible young man 



66 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of great integrity." It would seem that they were 
all persons of very estimable character, though some 
of them had imbibed Franklin's skeptical opinions. 
They spent many of their Sabbaths, wandering on 
the banks of the romantic Schuylkill, reading to each 
other their compositions in prose and verse. 

James Ralph, who was very emphatic in his deis- 
tical views, in his enthusiasm, decided to devote 
himself to the art of rhyming. The sensible Frank- 
lin tried to dissuade him from his folly, but in vain. 
On one occasion they all agreed to attempt a version 
of the Eighteenth Psalm. This sublime production 
of an inspired pen contains, in fifty verses, imagery 
as grand and sentiments as beautiful, as perhaps can 
anywhere else be found, within the same compass, in 
any language. It certainly speaks well for the intel- 
lectual acumen of these young men, and for their 
devotional instincts, that they should have selected 
so noble a theme. As their main object was to im- 
prove themselves in the command of language, and in 
the power of expression, they could not have chosen 
a subject more appropriate, than the Psalmist's de- 
scription of the descent of God to earth. 

•* He bowed the heavens also and came down ; and darkness wsM 
under his feet. 
And He rode upon a cherub and did fly ; 
Yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 
Jle made darkness his secret place. 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 6; 

His pavilion round about him were dark waters, thick clouds of 

the skies. 
At the brightness which was before him his thick clouds passed. 
Hail stones and coals of fire."* 

Joseph Watson died quite young, in the arms 
of Franklin. Charles Osborne acquired money and 
reputation, as a lawyer. Removing to the West 
Indies, he died, in the prime of life. 

Franklin and Osborne entered into the agree- 
ment, which has so often been made, that whichever 
should first die, should, if possible, return to the 
other and reveal to him the secrets of the spirit 
land. It is hardly necessary to say that Franklin 
watched long in vain, for a visit from his departed 
companion. 

Two months before Franklin sailed for London, 
Mr. Read, with whom he boarded, died. With the 
father, mother, and very pretty and amiable daugh- 
ter, Deborah, Franklin had found a happy home. 
A strong affection apparently sprang up between the 

*The intelligent reader will recall the glowing version of thi« 
Psalm, by Steinhold. 

" The Lord descended from above, 

And bowed the heavens most high { 
And underneath his feet he cast 

The darkness of the sky. 
On cherub and vjii cherubim. 

Full royally he rode ; 
And on the wings of mighty winds. 

Came flying all abroad." 



68 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

two young people. She was seventeen years of age 
and Franklin eighteen. Their union would be em- 
inently fitting, as in fortune and position in society, 
they were on the same level. 

Franklin, enjoying the patronage of the governor 
and with, as he supposed, very brilliant prospects 
before him, entered into an engagement with Debo- 
rah, and was anxious to be married before he em- 
barked for England, designing to leave his young 
bride at home with her mother. But Mrs. Read, in 
consideration of their youth, urged that the nuptials 
should be postponed until after his return. 

Sir William Keith continued to invite Franklin 
to his house, and lavished commendation and prom- 
ises upon him. Still he continually postponed giving 
him any letters of credit with which he could pur- 
chase types, paper and press. Though, as the hour 
for sailing approached, Franklin called again and 
again to obtain the needful documents, he was con- 
tinually met with apologies. At length, the day for 
the ship to weigh anchor arrived. It was about the 
§th of November, 1724. 

At that late hour the private secretary of the 
Governor called upon Franklin and informed him 
that Sir William would meet him at Newcastle, 
where the vessel was *:o cast anchor, and would then 
and there, deliver tc him all the important docu- 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 69 

ments. Franklin went on board. The ship dropped 
down the broad and beautiful Delaware, whose 
banks were brilliant with foliage in their richest 
autumnal brilliance, about thirty-two miles below 
Philadelphia, to Newcastle. To the great disappoint- 
ment of Franklin, the Governor still did not appear. 
He however sent his secretary, with a profusion of 
excuses, and professing to be pressed with business 
of the utmost importance, promised to send the 
letters to the captain before the vessel would be per- 
mitted to sail. 

Franklin, naturally buoyant and hopeful, did not 
even then, consider it possible that the Governor 
was intending to deceive him. Neither was it possi- 
ble to conceive of any motive which would induce 
Sir William to betray him by so deceptive a game. 
At length a bag from the Governor, apparently filled 
with letters and dispatches, was brought on board, 
and again the vessel unfurled her sails. Franklin, 
with some solicitude, asked for those which were di- 
rected to him. Bat Captain Annis, all engrossed 
with the cares of embarkation, said that he was too 
busy to examine the bag at that time, but that they 
would, at their leisure, on the voyage select the 
letters. 

On the loth of November, 1724, the good ship, 
the London Hope, pushed out from the Delaware 



7© BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

upon the broad Atlantic. We know not whether 
Franklin was surprised to find on board, as one of 
the passengers, his poetical deistical friend James 
Ralph. This young man, who had renounced Chris- 
tianity, in the adoption of principles, which he pro- 
fessed to believe conducive to the formation of a 
much higher moral character, had deliberately aban- 
doned his wife and child to seek his fortune in Lon- 
don He had deceived them by the most false 
representation. Carefully he concealed from Frank- 
lin, his unprincipled conduct and visionary schemes. 

The voyage was long and rough, as the vessel did 
not reach London until the twenty-fourth of No- 
vember. On the passage he very carefully, with the 
captain, examined the letter-bag. But no letter was 
found addressed to him. There were several, how- 
ever, addressed to other persons, with Franklin's 
name upon the envelope as if they were in his care. 
As one of these was addressed to the king's printer 
and another to a stationer in London, the sanguine 
young man through all the dreary and protracted 
voyage, clung to the hope that all was right. 

Upon arriving in London, Franklin hastened 
first to the stationer's and presented him with the 
letter, saying to him, " Here is a letter from Gov- 
ernor Keith, of Pennsylvania." The stationer looked 
up with surprise and said : 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. Jl 

** Governor Keith ! I do not know of any such 
person." Then breaking the seal, and looking at 
the signature, he said very contemptuously, " Rid. 
dlesden. I have lately found him to be a complete 
rascal. I will have nothing to do with him, nor 
receive any letters from him."* 

So saying he thrust the letter back into Frank- 
lin's hand, and turned away to serve a customer. 
Franklin was almost stunned with this intelligence. 
He immediately conferred with a Mr. Denham, a 
judicious friend whose acquaintance he had made 
on board the ship. They ascertained that the in- 
famous Governor, from motives which it is difficult 
to comprehend, had not furnished Franklin with a 
single document. There was not a bill of credit or 
a single letter of introduction, commending the 
young adventurer to people in London. Den- 
ham then told him that no one who knew Keith 
had the slightest confidence in his promises. That 
the idea that he would furnish him with any letters 
of credit was preposterous, since Sir William had no 
credit with any body. 

And thus Franklin found himself with his com- 

* We both of us happen to know, as well as the stationer, that Rid- 
dlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. He had half ruined Miss 
Read's father by persuading him to be bound for him. By his let- 
ter it appeared there was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice of 
Mr. Hamilton ; that Keith was concerned in it with Riddlesden. 
— Works of Franklin, by Sparks, vol. i, p. 55 



72 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

panion James Ralph, alone in the great world of 
London, without any letters of introduction, with- 
out any prospect of employment, and almost with- 
out money. The virtues of Franklin had exerted a 
restraining influence upon the unprincipled Ralph, 
and Franklin had not as yet become acquainted 
with the true basis of his character. The two young 
men met together to consult in this dilemma and to 
examine their finances. It appeared that Ralph 
had scarcely one penny in his pocket. He had 
intended to be a hanger-on upon Franklin, in whose 
ability to take care of himself and others he had the 
greatest confidence. Franklin*s purse contained 
about fifty dollars. 

Again he returned to consult with Mr. Denham. 
He very wisely advised Franklin to seek employ- 
ment in some of the printing offices in London. 
He encouraged him with the thought that thus with 
a few months* labor, he might not only pay his 
expenses, but also lay up a sufficient sum to defray 
his passage home. 

Franklin gradually perceived to his dismay, what 
an old man of the sea he had got upon his shoulders 
in the person of James Ralph. The following is his 
calm comment upon the atrocious conduct of 
Keith : 

" What shall we think," he writes, " of a gov- 



EXCURSION TO ENGLAND. 73 

crnor playing such pitiful tricks, and imposing so 
grossly upon a poor ignorant boy ? It was a habit 
he had acquired ; he wished to please every body, 
and having little to give, he gave expectations. He 
was otherwise an ingenuous, sensible man, a pretty 
good writer, and a good governor for the people, 
though not for his constituents the proprietaries. 
Several of our best laws were of his planning, and 
passed during his administration." 

The entire absence of anger in this statement, 
has won for Franklin great commendation. 

With his dependent proteg^ Ralph, he took 
humble lodgings in Little Britain street. Ralph 
had remarkable powers of conversation, with much 
more than ordinary literary talent, and could, when- 
ever he wished, make himself very agreeable and 
almost fascinating as a companion. But he was 
quite a child as to all ability to take care of himself. 
Franklin really loved him at that time. He was a 
very handsome young man, graceful in his demean- 
or; and those who listened to his eloquent ha- 
rangues would imagine that he was destined to 
attain to greatness. 

Franklin immediately applied for work at the 
great printing establishment of Palmer in Bartholo- 
mew Close. Fifty journeymen were here employed. 
He promptly entered into a contract with the 



74 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

proprieter for the remuneration of about six dollars 
a week. Ralph, characteristically hurried to the 
theatre to enter upon the profession of a play-actor. 
Being disappointed in that attempt, his next plan 
was to edit a newspaper to be called the Spectator. 
Not being able to find a publisher, he then went the 
rounds of the law offices, in search of copying, but 
.not even this, could he obtain. In the meantime 
they were both supported by the purse of Franklin. 
With fifty dollars in his pocket, and earning six 
dollars a week, he felt quite easy in his circum- 
stances, and was quite generous in his expenditure 
for their mutual enjoyment. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Mental and Moral Conflicts, 

Faithfulness to work — Neglect of Deborah Read — Treatise on Lib 
erty and Necessity — Skill in swimming — Return to America — 
Marriage of Miss Read — Severe sickness — Death of Mr. Denham 
— Returns to Keimer's employ — The Junto — His Epitaph — Re- 
formation of his treatise on Liberty and Necessity. — Franklin's 
creed. 

Franklin and Ralph were essentially congenial 
in their tastes. Neither of them were religiously in- 
clined in the ordinary acceptation of those words. 
But the thoughtful philosophy of Franklin has by 
many been regarded as the development of an in- 
stinctively religious character. They were both 
exceedingly fond of amusement and especially of 
pleasure excursions on the Sabbath. Very seldom^ 
did either the intellect or the heart lure them to 
listen to such teachings at they would hear from the 
pulpit. It certainly would have been better for 
them both, had they been church-going young men. 
There was no pulpit in all London from which they 
would not hear the reiterated counsel, Cease to do 
evil ; learn to do well. 



^(i BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

Franklin was faithful in the highest degree to his 
employer. Weary with the day's toil, which with 
his active mind was highly intellectual as well as 
mechanical, he almost invariably in the evening 
sought recreation with Ralph in the theatre. It is 
safe to infer that the best productions of our best 
dramatists, were those which would most interest 
the mind of our young philosopher. Ralph was 
daily gaining an increasing influence over his mind. 
It is said that we are prone to love more ardently 
those upon whom we confer favors than those from 
whom we receive them. 

To these two young men the pleasures of Lon- 
don seemed inexhaustible. Franklin began to for- 
get his old home and his friends. He began to think 
that London was a very pleasant place of residence, 
and that it was doubtful whether he should ever 
return to America again. He had constant employ- 
ment, the prospect of an increasing income, and with 
his economical habits he had ample funds to relieve 
himself from all pecuniary embarrassment. With 
his friend Ralph, he was leading a very jovial life, 
free from all care. 

His love for Deborah Read began to vanish away. 
He thought very seldom of her: seldom could he 
find time to write to her ; and ere long his letters 
ceased altogether ; and she was cruelly left to the 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. // 

uncertainty of whether he was alive or dead. Ralph 
had entirely forgotten his wife and child, and Frank- 
lin had equally" forgotten his affianced. In subse- 
quent years the memory of this desertion seems to 
have weighed heavily on him. He wrote in his 
advanced life in reference to his treatment of Deb- 
orah, 

**This was another of the great errors of my life; 
which I could wish to correct were I to live it over 
again." 

For nearly a year, Franklin thus continued in 
the employment of Mr. Palmer, receiving good 
wages and spending them freely. A very highly 
esteemed clergyman of the Church of England named 
WoUaston, had written a book entitled, " The Reli- 
gion of Nature Delineated." It was a work which 
obtained much celebrity in those days and was pub- 
lished by Mr. Palmer. It was of the general charac- 
ter of Butler's Analogy, and was intended to prove 
that the morality enjoined by Jesus Christ, was found- 
ed in the very nature of man ; and that the principles 
of that morality were immutable, even though deists 
should succeed in destroying the public faith in the 
divine authority of Christianity. It was eminently 
an amiable book, written with great charity and 
candor, and without any dogmatic assumptions. 

It chanced to fall to Franklin to set up the type 



yS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

As was customary with him, he made himse'lf thor- 
oughly acquainted with the treatise of which he thus 
became the compositor. His mind was in such a 
state in reference to the claims of that Christianity 
which certainly did not commend the mode of life 
he was living, that it excited not only antagonistic 
k)ut even angry emotions. So thoroughly were his 
feelings aroused, that he wrote and published a 
pamphlet of thirty-two pages, in refutation of the 
theory of Mr. Wollaston. 

Franklin dedicated his work, which was entitled 
" A dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure 
and Pain,'* to James Ralph. Fortunately, the trea^ 
tise has descended to us unmutilated. He com- 
mences with the observation : 

*' I have here given you my present thoughts 
upon the general state of things in the universe." 

The production was certainly a very able one to 
come from the pen of a young printer of but nine- 
teen years. Mr. Palmer, while recognizing its ability, 
pronounced its principles to be atrocious and demor- 
alizing. The production of such a work, literary, 
philosophical and religious, by probably the young- 
est companion of the journeymen printers, caused 
them all to open their eyes with astonishment, and 
he was regarded at once as a great man among them.* 

* In this extraordinary document our young deist writes, ' Ther« 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 79 

The deists of London, who had united in a club 
of merry free-thinkers, holding their meetings at an 
ale-house, sought out Franklin and drew him into 
their convivial gatherings. These men had no com- 
mon principle of belief; they were united only in 
the negative principle of unbelief in the Christian 
religion. Ralph had formed a connection with a 
young milliner, by whom, through his many fascina- 
tions, he was mainly supported. 

Franklin, with his increasing expenditures, was 
now disposed to shake off Ralph, as he needed all 
his money for his own convivial enjoyments. Ralph 

is said to be a first mover, who is called God, who is all wise, all 
good, all powerful. If he is all good, whatsoever he doeth must be 
good. If he is all wise, whatever he doeth must be wise. That 
there are things to which we give the name of Evil, is not to be 
denied — such as theft, murder, etc. But these are not in reality 
evils. To suppose anything to exist or to be done contrary to the 
will of the Almighty is to suppose him not Almighty. There is 
nothing done but God either does or permits. Though a creature 
may do many actions, which, by his fellow creatures, will be named 
evil, yet he can not act what will be in itself displeasing to God. 

*' We will sum up the argument thus, When the Creator first 
designed the universe, either it was his will that all should exist and 
be in the manner they are at this time, or it was his will that they 
should be otherwise. To say it was His will things should be other 
wise, is to say that somewhat hath contradicted His will ; which is 
impossible. Therefore we must allow that all things exist now in a 
manner agreeable to His will ; and, in consequence of that, all are 
equally good and therefore equally esteemed by Him. No condition 
of life or being is better or preferable ^o another,' 

This whole treatise may be found in the appendix to the firsJ 
volume of Parton's Life of Franklin 



So BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 

• 

went into the country and opened a school, where 
he utterly failed. The unhappy milliner, ruined in 
character, and with a little child, wrote to Franklin 
imploring aid. Her letters touched his kindly heart. 
He could never see sorrow without wishing to 
relieve it. He furnished her with money, in small 
sums, to the amount of one hundred and thirty dol- 
lars ; and worst of all, we regret to say that he com- 
menced treating her with such familiarity, that she, 
still faithful to Ralph, repulsed him indignantly.* 

Franklin does not conceal these foibles^ as he 
regarded them, these sins as Christianity pronounces 
them. He declares this simply to have been another 
of the great errors of his youth. She informed 
Ralph of his conduct. He was enraged, broke off all 
further communication with Franklin, and thirty-five 
years passed away before they met again. Ralph, 
goaded to desperation, gained a wretched living in 
various literary adventures ; writing for any body, 
on any side, and for any price. Indeed he eventu- 

* Franklin writes in his autobiography, " I grew fond of her com- 
pany, and being at that time under no religious restraint, ahd taking 
advantage of my importance to her, I attempted to take some liber- 
ties with her, another erratum, which she repulsed with a proper 
degree of resentment. She wrote to Ralph and acquainted him with 
my conduct. This occasioned a breach between us ; and when 
he returned to London, he let me know he considered all th« 
■obligations he had been under to me as annulled " — Works of Frank 
lin, vol. i, p. 59. 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 8 1 

ally gained quite an ephemeral reputation He 
could express himself with vivacity, and several 
quite prominent politicians sought the aid of his 
pen. 

Franklin, thus relieved from the support of 
Ralph, soon after entered a more extensive printing 
house, at Lincoln s Inn Fields. Though he was 
exceedingly fond of a sparkling glass of wine in his 
convivial hours, he was too much of a philosopher to 
stupefy his brain in guzzling beer. His habitual 
daily beverage was cold water. 

** My companion at the press," he wrote, " drank 
every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast 
with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast 
and dinner, a pint at dinner, and another when he 
had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable 
custom. But it was necessary, he supposed, to 
drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor. 
I endeavored to convince him that the bodily 
strength afforded by beer could only be in propor- 
tion to the grain or the barley dissolved in the 
water of which it was made ; that there was more 
flour in a pennyworth of bread, and, therefore, if he 
could eat that with a pint of water, it would give 
him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank 
on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay, 
out of his wages, every Saturday night, for that vile 
4* 



S2 J3ENJAMIN FR^\NKLIN. 

liquor ; an expense I was free from ; and thus these 
poor devils keep themselves always under." 

Again Franklin wrote in characteristic phrase, in 
reference to the influence of his example over some 
of his companions, 

" From my example, a great many of them left 
their muddling breakfast of bread, beer and cheese, 
finding they could, with me, be supplied from a 
neighboring house, with a large porringer of hot 
water gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbled with 
bread and a bit of butter in it, for the price of a 
pint of beer, — three half-pence. This was a more 
comfortable, as well as a cheaper breakfast, and kept 
their heads clearer. Those who continued sotting 
with their beer all day, were often, by not paying, 
out of credit at the ale-house ; and used to make 
interest with me to get beer ; their light as they 
phrased it being out. I watched the pay table on 
Saturday night, and collected what I stood engaged 
for them, having to pay sometimes on their account.** 

Franklin's skill in swimming, as we have men- 
tioned was very remarkable. At one time he swam 
from London to Chelsea, a distance of four miles. 
Several of his companions he taught to swim in 
two lessons. His celebrity was such that he was 
urged to open a swimming school.* The life of self- 

♦ " On one of these days I was, to my surprise, sent for by a 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 83 

indulgence, he was now living in London, was not 
such as even his loose religious principles could 
approve. He had abandoned the faith of his 
fathers, and had adopted, for his rule of conduct, 
the principle, that it was right to yield to any indul- 
gences to which his passions incited him. He 
became tired of London, and probably found it 
necessary to break away from the influences and 
associates with which he had surrounded himself. 

Mr. Denham, his companion of voyage, had 
decided to return to Philadephia, and open an 
extensive store. He offered Franklin two hundred 
and fifty dollars a year as book-keeper. Though 
this was less than the sum Franklin was then earn- 
ing, as compositor, there were prospects of his 
advancement. This consideration, in addition to 
his desire to escape from London, led him to accept 
the offer. He was now twenty years of age. It 

great man I knew only by name, Sir William Wyndham. He had 
heard of my swimming from Chelsea to Blackfriars and of my teaching 
Wygate and another young man to swim in a few hours. He had 
two sons about to set out on their travels. He wished to have them 
first taught swimming, and proposed to gratify me handsomely if I 
would teach them. They were not yet come to town, and my stay 
firas uncertain, so I could not undertake it. But from the incident I 
thought it likely that if I were to remain in England and opened 9 
swimming-school I might get a good deal of money. And it struck 
me so strongly that had the overture been made me sooner, probably 
I should not so soon have returned to America." — Autobiography, 
Vol I. p. 66 



84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

does not appear that he had thus far formed any 
deliberate plan for his life's work. He floated along 
as the current of events drifted him. 

On the twenty-first of July, 1726, Franklin 
embarked on board the ship Berkshire for Philadel- 
phia. He had been absent from America but little 
more than a year and a half. During this time he 
had not increased his fortune, for he had spent his 
money as fast as he had earned it. After a voyage 
of eighty days, the ship cast anchor before Philadel- 
phia. At that time ships were often from three to 
seven months effecting the passage across the 
Atlantic. 

As usual Franklin kept a diary punctually during 
his long voyage. Its pages were replete with pithy 
remarks of wit and wisdom. He was very fond of 
a game of checkers, and in that amusement beguiled 
many weary hours. We find the following striking 
comments upon the diversion in his journal : 

" It is a game I much delight in. But it requires 
a clear head and undisturbed. The persons playing, 
if they would play well, ought not much to regard 
the consequences of the game ; for that diverts and 
withdraws the mind from the game itself, and makes 
the player liable to make many false, open moves. 
I will venture to lay it down for an infallible rule 
that if two persons equal in judgment, play for a 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. Sj 

considerable sum, he that loves money most, shall 
lose. His anxiety for the success of the game con- 
founds him. Courage is almost as requisite for the 
good conduct of this game as in a real battle ; for 
if the player imagines himself opposed by one that 
is much his superior in skill, his mind is so intent on 
the defensive part, that an advantage passes un- 
observed." 

The Governor of the Isle of Wight had died, 
leaving the reputation of having been one of the 
most consummate scoundrels who ever exercised 
despotic power. Franklin, in his treatise upon 
** Liberty and Necessity," written but a few months 
before, had assumed that there was no such thing 
as good and evil ; that God ordered and controlled 
every event ; and that consequently every event 
was in accordance with His will, and alike pleasing 
in His sight. But now we find the following record 
in his journal, which most readers will recognize as 
inconsistent with the young philosopher's theologi- 
cal opinions. He writes: 

**At the death of this governor, it appeared that 
he was a great villain, and a great politician. 
There was no crime so damnable, which he would 
stick at in the execution of his designs. And yet 
he had the art of covering all so thick, that with 
almost all men in general, while be lived he passed 



^6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

for a saint. In short, I believe it is impossible for a 
man, though he has all the cunning of a devil, to 
live and die a villain, and yet conceal it so well as to 
carry the name of an honest fellow to the grave with 
him, but some one by some accident or other, shall 
discover him. Truth and sincerity have a certain 
distinguishing, native lustre about them, which can- 
not be perfectly counterfeited. They are like fire 
and flame that cannot be painted." 

We should infer, from some intimations in Frank- 
lin's diary, that he was troubled by some qualms of 
conscience, in view of his abandonment of Miss 
Read, and his irregular life in London. He has left 
a paper in which he stated that he had never formed 
any regular plan for the control of his conduct: 
that he was now about to enter on a new life ; and 
that he was resolved that henceforth he would speak 
the truth, be industrious in his business, and speak 
ill of no man. These were rather meagre resolutions 
for a young man under these circumstances to adopt. 

Soon after landing at Philadelphia, Franklin 
chanced to meet Sir William Keith in the streets. 
The governor seemed much embarrassed, and passed 
by without speaking. It does not appear that the 
acquaintance was ever resumed. The governor 
lived nearly twenty-fi\ e years afterward, a dishonored 
and ruined man and died in the extreme of poverty. 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 8/ 

Poor Miss Read, heart-broken, and deeming her 
self forever abandoned, yielded to the importunities 
of her friends and married a mechanic by the name 
of Rogers. He proved to be a thoroughly worthless 
fellow. His unconcealed profligacy, and unfaithful- 
ness to his wife, compelled her, after a few months 
of wretchedness, to return to her mother, and to 
resume her maiden name. The profligate husband 
fled from his creditors to the West Indies. Rumors 
soon reached Philadelphia of his death, leaving prob- 
ably another wife. 

Franklin entered upon his duties as clerk of Mr. 
Denham, with his accustomed energy and skill. 
He carried into his new vocation, all his intellectual 
sagacity, and speedily won not only the confidence 
but the affection of his employer. He lived with 
Mr. Denham, and being always disposed to look 
upon the bright side of everything, even of his own 
imperfections, notwithstanding his infidelity to Miss 
Read, he seems to have been a very happy and even 
jovial young man. 

Four months after Franklin had entered upon 
his mercantile career, both Mi Denham and Frank- 
lin were seized with the pleurisy. Mr. Denham 
died. Franklin, though brought near to the grave 
recovered. He writes : 

" I suffered a great deal ; gave up the point in 



88 BENJAMIN I-RANKLIN. 

• 

my own mind ; and was at the time rather disap. 
pointed when I found myself recovering ; regretting 
in some degree that I must now, sometime or other 
have all that disagreeable work to do over again." 

The death of Mr. Denham broke up the estab- 
lishment, and Franklin was thrown out of employ- 
ment. Keimer, in whose service he had formerly 
been engaged, again made him an offer to superin- 
tend a printing office. Franklin accepted the propo- 
sition. There were five inefficient hands, whom 
Franklin was expected to transform into accom- 
plished printers. With these, and a few others, he 
organized a literary club, called the " Junto ; or the 
Leathern Apron Club," as nearly every member was 
a mechanic. 

The club met every Friday evening, and the wine 
cup, to stimulate conviviality, passed freely among 
them. There were twenty-four questions, which 
were every evening read, to which answers were to 
be returned by any one who could answer them. 
Between each question, it was expected that each 
member would fill, and empty, his glass. One would 
think that the wine must have been very weak, or 
the heads of these young men very strong, to ena- 
ble them to quaff twenty-four glasses unharmed. 
We give a few of the questions as specimens of theii 
general character. 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS 8^ 

I. *' Have you met with anything in the author 
you last read ? 

3. " Has any citizen in your knowledge failed^ 
and have you heard the cause? 

7, " What unhappy effects of intemperance have 
you lately observed ? 

12. " Has any deserving stranger arrived in town- 
since your last meeting ? 

16. ** Has anybody attacked your reputation 
lately ? 

23. " Is there any difficulty which you would 
gladly have discussed at this time ? *' 

Debates, declamation, and the reading of essays 
added to the entertainment of these gatherings. 
Stories were told, and bacchanal songs sung. No 
man could tell a better story, and few men could 
sing a better song than Benjamin Franklin. No 
one was deemed a suitable member of the club, who 
would not contribute his full quota to the entertain- 
ment or instruction. The questions proposed by 
Franklin for discussion, developed the elevated intel- 
lectual region his thoughts were accustomed to 
range. We give a few as specimens. 

*' Can any one particular form of government 
suit all mankind ? 

" Should it be the aim of philosophy to eradicate 
the passions ? 



90 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

** Is perfection attainable in this life ? 

" What general conduct of life is most suitable 
for men in such circumstances as most of the mem- 
bers of the Junto are ? " 

The Junto was limited to twelve members. It 
soon became so popular that applications for admis- 
sion became very frequent. Six months passed 
rapidly away, when Keimer, who was an exceedingly 
immoral and worthless man, and was fast going to 
ruin, in some fit of drunkenness, or ungovernable 
irritation, entered the office, and assailed Franklin 
with such abuse, that he took his hat, and repaired 
to his lodgings, resolved never to return. 

Franklin was twenty-one years of age. He had 
laid up no money. He was still but a journeyman 
printer. The draft which he had received from Mr. 
Vernon for fifty dollars had not yet been paid. He 
was exceedingly mortified when he allowed himself 
to reflect upon this delinquency which certainly ap- 
proached dishonesty. In this emergence he conferred 
with a fellow journeyman by the name of Hugh 
Meredith, whose father was a gentleman of consider- 
able property. Meredith proposed that they should 
enter into partnership, he furnishing the funds, and 
Franklin the business capacity. 

At that time Franklin, remembering bis tv»rrAw 
escape from the grave by the pleurisy, wrote his owu 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 9I 

epitaph whtch has been greatly celebrated. It has 
genera-IIy been admired ; but some of more sensitive 
minds perceive in it a tone which is somewhat 
repulsive. 

'The Body 

o; 

Benjamin Franklin, 

Printer, 

(Like the cover of an old book, 

Its contents torn out, 

And stripped of its let ering and gilding,) 

Lies here, food for worms. 

Yet the work itself shall not bvj lost. 

For it will, as he believed, appear once more, 

In a new 

And more beautiful edition. 

Corrected and amended 

By 

The Author." 

The excellencies of Franklin did not run in the 
Ime of exquisite sensibilities. At the early age of 
fifteen he began to cast off the restraints of the reli- 
gion of his father and mother. Nearly all his asso- 
ciates were what were called Free-thinkers. He 
could not be blind to their moral imperfections. 
Mr. Parton writes, 

" His old friend Collins, he remembered, was a 
Free-thinker, and Collins had gone astray. Ralph 
was a Free-thinker, and Ralph was a great sinner. 
Keith was a Free-thinker, and Keith was the great. 



92 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

€st liar in Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin was 
a Free-thinker, and how shamefully he had behaved 
to Ralph's mistress, to Mr. Vernon and Miss Read, 
whose young life had been blighted through him." * 
Franklin's creed thus far, consisted only of nega- 
tions. He had no belief; he had only unbelief. 
Indeed he seems to have become quite ashamed of 
his treatise upon Liberty and Necessity, published 
in London, ind felt constrained to write a refuta- 
tion of it.f As this strange young man in his dis- 

* Parton's Life of Franklin, Vol i, p. i68. 

f " My arguments perverted some others, especially Collins ana 
Ralph. But each of these having wronged me greatly without the least 
compunction ; and recollecting Keith's conduct towards me, who was 
another Free-thinker, and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, 
which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect that this 
doctrine, though it might be true, was not very usefuL My London 
pamphlet, printed in 1725, and which had for its motto, 

" Whatever is is right," 
and which from the attributes of God, His infinite wisdom, goodness and 
power, concluded that nothing could possibly be wrong in the world, 
and that vice and virtue were empty distinctions, no such things ex- 
isting, appeared now not so clever a performance, as I once thought 
it ; and I doubted whether some error had not insinuated itself unper* 
ceived into my argument." 

In the year 1779, Dr. Franklin wrote to Dr. Benjamin Vaughn 
«<especting this pamphlet. 

** There were only one hundred copies printed, of which I gave a 
few to friends. Afterwards, disliking the piece, I burnt the rest, except 
one copy. I was not nineteen years of age when it was written. In 
1730, I wrote a piece on the other side of the question, which began 
with laying for its foundation that almost all men, in all ages and 
countries, have at times made use oi prayer, 

" Thence I reasoned that if all things are ordained, prayer must be 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 93 

content looked over the religions of the world, he 
could find no one that met his views. He therefore 
deliberately and thoughtfully sat down to form a 
religion of his own. Many such persons have ap- 
peared in the lapse of the ages, and almost invari- 
ably they have announced their creeds with the 
words, ** Thus saith the Lord." But our young 
printer of twenty-two years, made no profession 
whatever, of any divine aid. He simply said, ** Thus 
saith my thoughts." One would think he could 
not have much confidence in those thoughts, when 
it is remembered that at this time he was writing a 
refutation of the opinions, which he had published 
in London but a few months before. 

The book which Franklin thus prepared was 
entiled "Articles of Belief, and Acts of Religion.'* 
His simple creed was that there was one Supreme 
God who had created many minor gods ; that the 
supreme God was so great that he did not desire 
the worship of man but was far above it. 

The minor gods are perhaps immortal, and per- 

among the rest ordained ; but as prayer can procure no change in 
things that are ordained, praying must then be useless and an absurd- 
ity. God would, therefore, not ordain praying if everything else was 
ordained. But praying exists, therefore all other things are not or- 
dained. This manuscript was never printed. The great uncertainty 
I foimd in metaphysical reasoning disgusted me, and I quitted that 
kind of reading and study for others more satisfactory.' — ^Autobicg- 
raphy, p. 76. 



94 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

haps after the ages lapse they are changed, others sup- 
plying their place. Each of these subordinate gods 
has created for himself a sun with its planetary sys- 
tem, over which he presides and from the inhabi- 
tants of which he expects adoration. He writes, 

*' It is that particular wise and good God, who 
is the author and owner of our system that I pro- 
pose for the object of my praise and adoration. It 
is to be inferred that this God is not above caring 
for us, is pleased with our praise, and offended when 
we slight him.** 

He then prepares an invocation to this god of 
our solar system. It is founded on the style of the 
Psalms, but is immeasurably inferior to most of 
those sublime utterances of the Psalmist of Israel. 
And still the sentiments breathed were ennobling 
in their character ; they proved that Franklin was 
vastly superior to the thoughtless, reckless deists 
who surrounded him, and that his soul was reaching 
forth and yearning for higher and holier attain- 
ments. In this invocation, the whole of which 
we cannot quote, he writes, 

" O Creator ! O Father ! I believe that thou art 
good; and that thou art pleased with the pleasure 
of thy children. Praised be thy name forever. By 
thy power thou hast made the glorious sun with his 
attending worlds. By thy wisdom thou hast formed 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 95 

all things. Thy wisdom, thy power, and thy good- 
ness are everywhere clearly seen. Thou abhorrest 
in thy creatures treachery and deceit, malice, 
revenge, intemperance, and every other hurtful vice. 
But thou art a lover of justice and sincerity, of 
friendship and benevolence, and every virtue. 
Thou art my friend, my father, and my benefactor. 
Praised be thy name ; O God, forever. Amen." 

The prayer which followed, doubtless giving 
utterance to his most inward feelings, is beautiful. 

" Inasmuch," he wrote, " as by reason of our 
ignorance, we cannot be certain that many things, 
which we often hear mentioned in the petitions of 
men to the Deity, would prove real goods if they 
were in our possession, and as I have reason to 
hope and believe that the goodness of my Heavenly 
Father will not withhold from me a suitable share of 
temporal blessings, if by a virtuous and holy life I 
conciliate his favor and kindness ; therefore I pre- 
sume not to ask such things ; but rather humbly 
and with a sincere heart, express my earnest desire 
that he would graciously assist my continual en- 
deavors and resolutions of eschewing vice and em- 
bracing virtue, which kind of supplication will at 
the same time remind me in a solemn manner of my 
extensive duty." 

He then added the supplication that he might 



96 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 

be preserved from atheism, impiety and profaneness ; 
that he might be loyal to his prince ; that he might 
be gracious to those below him ; that he might 
refrain from calumny and detraction ; that he might 
be sincere in friendship, just in his dealings, grateful 
to his benefactors, patient in affliction ; that he 
might have tenderness for the weak, and that, re- 
joicing in the good of others, he might become 
truly virtuous and magnanimous. 

It is very evident that some unexplained circum- 
stances had called the attention of Franklin very 
earnestly to the subject of religion. He wrote very 
much upon that theme, and published a new version 
of the Lord's Prayer, and a lecture upon Providence 
and Predestination. He, however, admits that he 
very seldom attended any public worship, adding, 

** I had still an opinion of its propriety and its 
utility, when rightly conducted ; and I regularly 
paid my annual subscription for the support of the 
only Presbyterian minister." 

Rumors soon reached Franklin's good father of 
Boston, of his son's free-thinking, and he wrote to 
his son in much alarm. In Franklin's reply, he 
said, 

" All that should be expected from me, is to keep 
my mind open to conviction ; to hear patiently and 
examine attentively whatever is offered me for that 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 97 

end. And if after all I continue in the same errors 
I. believe your usual charity will induce you rather 
to pity and excuse, than to blame me. In the 
meantime, your care and concern for me, is what I 
am very thankful for. My mother grieves that one 
of he" sons is an Arian, and another an Arminian. 
What an Arminian or an Arian is, I cannot say that 
I very well know. The truth is, I make such dis- 
tinctions very little my study. I think vital religion 
has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded 
than virtue. And the Scriptures assure me that at 
the last day we shall not be examined what we 
thought but what we did." 

Franklin, having no revealed religion to guide 
him, and having no foundation for his faith, but the 
ever-changing vagaries of his own fantastic imagina- 
tion, could have no belief to-day, of which he had 
any certainty that he would hold the same to-mor- 
row. He was continually abandoning one after 
another of the articles of his fantastical creed, and 
adopting others in their place. At length he settled 
down upon the following simple belief, which with 
very considerable tenacity, but without any attempt 
to promulgate it, he adhered to for many years. It 
consisted of the six following articles which we give 
in briefest language. 

I. " There is one God. 
5 



98 BENJAMIN i<KANKLIN. 

2. " He governs the world. 

3. ** He ought to be worshipped. 

4. " Doing good is the service most acceptable 
to him. 

5. " Man is immortal. 

6. " In the future world the souls of men will be 
dealt with justly." 

It is very evident that Franklin had no great 
confidence in his theological opinions. He studi- 
ously avoided all writing upon the subject, and as 
far as possible all conversation. Still, with his keen 
sense of humor, he could not refrain from occasion- 
ally plunging a pretty sharp dagger's thrust into the 
palpable imperfections of the various and contend- 
ing sects. 

There was very little moral power, in the creed he 
professed, to arrest young men, of glowing passions, 
and exposed to the most difficult temptations, in 
their downward career. No voice of Franklin was 
heard with potency calling upon those who were 
thronging the broad road. In a lecture upon Provi- 
dence, to his companions of the Junto, which was 
subsequently published, and which reflects some 
considerable honor upon the earntstness of his 
thoughts, he wrote, 

" I am especially discouraged when I reflect that 
you are all my intimate pot-companions, who have 



MENTAL AND MORAL CONFLICTS. 99 

heard me say a thousand silly things in conversation, 
and therefore have not that laudable partiality and 
veneration for whatever I shall deliver that good 
per)plehave for their spiritual guides ; that you have 
no reverence for my habit, nor for the sanctity of 
my countenance ; that you do not believe me in- 
spired, nor divinely assisted ; and therefore will 
think yourself at liberty to assert, or dissert, approve 
or disapprove of anything I advance, canvassing and 
sifting it as the private opinion of one of your 
acquaintance." 

Though it was Franklin's assumption that his re- 
ligion was one of works and not of faith, still it must 
be admitted that his life was very inconsistent with 
those principles of purity, moral loveliness and 
good report which the Gospel enjoins. With his 
remarkable honesty of mind, in strains which we are 
constrained, though with regret to record, he writes, 

" That hard-to-be governed passion of youth had 
hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women 
that fell in my way, which were attended with some 
expense and great inconvenience, besides a contin- 
ual risk to my health by distemper, which of all 
things I dreaded, though by great luck I escaped it.'* 

Mr. Parton writes, '* It was perhaps owing to his 
frequent delinquencies in this way, that his liturgy 
contains no allusion to a vice, which is of all others 

L.cfC. 



lOO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the most alluring to a youth of Franklin's tempera- 
ment. He was too sincere and logical a man to go 
before his God and ask assistance against a fault 
which he had not fully resolved to overcome, and 
that immediately. About a year after the date of 
his liturgy was born his illegitimate son William 
Franklin, who became Governor of New Jersey. If 
laws were as easily executed as enacted, Benjamin 
Franklin would have received, upon this occasion, 
twenty-one lashings at the public whipping-post of 
Philadelphia." 



CHAPTER V. 

The Dawn of Prosperity, 

Franklin takes a house — His first job — His industry — Plann a 
Newspaper — Enters the list as a writer — Advocates a Ptper 
currency — Purchases Keimer's paper — Character of Meredith — 
Struggles of the firm — Unexpected assistance — Dissolves part- 
nership with Meredith — Franklin's energetic conduct — His 
courtship, and marriage — Character of Mrs. Franklin — Increase 
of luxury — Plans for a library — Prosperity of Pennsylvania — 
Customs in Philadelphia — Style of dress in 1726 — Franklin's 
social position in Philadelphia — His success — A hard student. 

Franklin had now reached the end of life as 
an apprentice and a journeyman. With his friend 
Meredith he hired a house in the lower part of 
Market street, at the rent of about one hundred 
and twenty dollars a year. A large portion of this 
house he prudently re-let to another mechanic who 
was a member of the Junto. It would seem that 
Meredith was disappointed in the amount of money 
he expected to raise. Consequently after utterly 
exhausting their stock of cash, they still found it ne- 
cessary to run deeply into debt for those appurte- 
nances of a printing office which were absolutely 
necessary. 



102 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Just as they got ready for work, quite to their 
delight, a countryman came in introduced by one 
of the Junto, George House, who wanted a five shil- 
ling job executed. 

** This man's five shillings," writes Franklin, 
* being our first fruits, and coming so seasonably, 
gave me more pleasure than any crown I have since 
earned. And from the gratitude I felt toward 
House, has made me often more ready, than per- 
haps I otherwise should have been, to assist young 
beginners." 

The two young men devoted themselves to their 
work, with assiduity which was a sure precursor of 
success. Often Franklin was found diligently em- 
ployed until eleven o'clock at night. His industry 
and energy soon attracted attention. A gentleman 
living near the office said to some of his friends : 

" The industry of that Franklin is superior to 
anything I ever saw of the kind. I see him still at 
work when I go home from the club, and he is 
at work again before his neighbors are out of 
bed." 

This statement produced such an impression 
upon a merchant who was present, that he called 
upon the young men and offered to supply them with 
stationery on credit. Franklin's literary taste, and 
his remarkable success as a writer, led him ever to 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITIT. I03 

cAerish, as a darling project, the idea cf the estab 
lishing of a newspaper. In a few months he had 
quite deliberately formed his plan ; but in some way 
Keimer got wind of it, and immediately issued a 
prospectus for the establishment of a paper of his 
own. Though he was totally unqualified for the 
task of editorship, yet his project was quite hurtful 
to the plans of Franklin. 

Very much annoyed by the treachery which had 
revealed his plans to Keimer, and perceiving that 
his paper was unpopular and heavy, Franklin very 
wisely decided to establish his own reputation as a 
vivacious writer, before entering upon the important 
undertaking of issuing a journal in his own name. 
There was a small paper then published in the city 
called "The Mercury." He commenced writing a 
series of very witty and satirical articles over the 
signature of " Busy Body." The first number con- 
tained the following sentences as intimations of what 
was to come. 

" It is probable that I may displease a great num- 
ber of your readers who will not very well like to 
pay ten shillings a year for being told of their faults, 
but as most people delight in censure when they 
themselves are not the object of it, if any are offended 
at my publicly exposing their private vices, I prom- 
ise they shall have the satisfaction in a very little 



I04 BENJAMIN l-RANKLIN. 

time, in seeing their good friends and neighbors in 
the same circumstances." 

These sparkling contributions of Franklin at- 
tracted much attention, and created for him. a grow- 
ing literary reputation. The subject of paper money 
which agitated our country, was then being discussed 
in Pennsylvania with intense interest. Franklin 
wrote a carefully studied pamphlet entitled " A 
Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a 
Paper Currency." 

This treatise, written by a young printer of but 
twenty-three years, upon one of the most difficult 
questions of finance, displayed great ability. Warmly 
he advocated a paper currency. His arguments, 
however, were such as would not now proba- 
bly exert much influence upon the public mind 
The main proposition he endeavored to sustain 
was, that there was not a sufficiency of gold and 
silver in Pennsylvania, for carrying on the trade of 
the province. He therefore argued that all branches 
of industry must languish unless the currency were 
increased by an issue of paper.* 

It has been suggested that Franklin might have 
been unconsciously influenced in his views, by the 
fact that he had been very successful in printing 

* This pamphlet may be found in Sparks' " Works •£ Franklin," 
Tol. ii, p. 253. 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 105 

paper money, and that he anticipated still more 
employment in that line. It is certain that Frank- 
lin's pamphlet exerted a powerful influence at the 
time, and a new issue of paper currency was ordered. 
Franklin thought that the effect was highly condu- 
cive to the prosperity of the province, and he never 
swerved from the views which he had so earnestly 
and successfully urged in his pamphlet. 

Franklin's sun was rapidly rising. Keimer's was 
as rapidly sinking. After publishing thirty-nine 
numbers of the '' Universal Instructor " and the 
subscription list having dwindled to ninety, he glad- 
ly sold the paper for a trifle to Franklin and Mere- 
dith. The genius of Franklin was immediately 
displayed in the improved literary character of the 
paper, and in its mechanical execution. The name 
was changed to the ** Pennsylvania Gazette,** The 
first number issued by him was on Oct. 2, 1729. 

The subject of religion was almost entirely 
ignored. Franklin seems to have become weary of 
the darkness and the fogs through which his unillu- 
mined mind had been so long painfully floundering, 
without coming to any results upon which he could 
place reliance. Christianity he generally treated 
with respect, though he could not refrain from 
occasionally giving a sly thrust at those imperfec- 
tions of Christians which were so palpable to his 
J5* 



I06 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

observant mind. And though he never assailed 
that which was not inherently bad, it cannot be 
denied that occasionally his keen sarcasms brought 
Christianity itself into reproach, as if it were a re- 
ligion which produced no better fruits, perhaps not 
so good, as no religion at all. 

The business of this young firm of Franklin and 
Meredith, viewed in the light of the grand printing 
-enterprises of the present day, was indeed trivial. 
The two young men did all the work themselves 
without even a boy to help them. In fact Mere- 
dith, who at the best was a poor workman, and who 
fell into intemperate habits, neglected his business, 
frequented the ale-houses, and left all responsibility 
resting upon the efficient shoulders of his partner. 

( Franklin, who endeavored to be perfect in every 
thing he undertook, printed his paper so admirably 
that it is said that there is probably not a journal 
now in Philadelphia which is issued in better style 
♦:han " The Pennsylvania Gazette " of 1729.^' 

For seven years Franklin had been embarrassed 
by the thought of the fifty dollars which he had 
received from Mr. Vernon, and which had not yet 
been repaid. Mr. Vernon wrote him a very gentle 
intimation, stating that it would be very conveni- 
ent for him to receive the money. Franklin re- 
rturned a contrite and magnanimous letter. He 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. IO7 

made no attempt to extenuate his fault, promised 
immediately to strain every nerve to meet the debt, 
and in a few months paid the whole, principal and 
interest. 

Still the infant firm was struggling with adversity. 
The partners had commenced operations with scarce- 
ly any capital excepting promises. Their outfit cost 
about a thousand dollars. Mr. Meredith had been 
unfortunate in business, and found himself unable to 
pay the second instalment promised of five hundred 
dollars. The stationers who furnished paper began 
to be uneasy, for they could not but see that Mere- 
dith was fast going to ruin. 

Franklin was seldom in the habit of dwelling 
upon his misfortunes. In these dark hours he wrote, 

** In this distress two true friends whose kindness 
I have never forgotten, nor ever shall forget while I 
can remember anything, came to me separately, un- 
known to each other, and without any application 
from me, offered each of them to advance me all the 
money that should be necessary to take the whole 
business upon myself; but they did not like my 
continuing in partnership with Meredith, who, as 
they said, was often seen drunk in the street, playing 
at low games in ale-houses, much to our discredit." 

Franklin generously was very reluctant to throw 
aside Meredith. Dissolute as the young man had 



I08 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

become, he could not forget that he was the son of a 
man who had been his friend ; but after carefully 
pondering the question and seeing ruin stare him in 
the face, he said one day to Meredith, 

" Perhaps your father is dissatisfied at the part 
you have undertaken in this affair of ours ; and is 
unwilling to advance for you and me, what he would 
for you. If that is the case tell me, and I will resign 
the whole to you and go about my business." 

Meredith replied, 

" My father has really been disappointed, and is 
really unable. I am unwilling to distress him fur- 
ther. I see this is a business I am unfit for. I was 
bred a farmer and it was folly in me to come to town, 
and put myself at thirty years of age an apprentice 
to learn a new trade. Many of our Welsh people 
are going to settle in North Carolina where land is 
cheap. I am inclined to go with them, and follow 
my old employment. If you will take the debts of 
the company upon you, return to my father the 
hundred pounds he has advanced, pay my little per- 
sonal debts, and give me thirty pounds and a new 
saddle, I will relinquish the partnership, and leave 
the whole in your hands." 

These were hard terms ; but there was no other 
way in which Franklin could escape from the em- 
barrassments of this untoward partnership. He 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. lOg 

accepted the proposal at once ; borrowed the need- 
ful money of his friends ; and became his own sole 
partner. 

True prosperity now began to attend his indom- 
itable industry, frugality, and wisdom. The ad- 
vance of the young man was necessarily slow, but it 
was sure. Well aware that his reputation with the 
community would be invaluable to him, he not only 
endeavored to be industrious, but to let it be seer 
by his neighbors that he left no stone unturned to 
accomplish his purposes. 

He would trundle, through the streets of Phila- 
delphia, in a wheel-barrow, the paper which he pur- 
chased, by no means seeking by-streets where his 
more fashionable companions would not see him. 
He dressed with the utmost simplicity, but always 
in clean garments, well cut, and which presented his 
admirable form to great advantage. Never did he 
allow himself to sink to the vulgarity of a slatternly 
appearance. He was ever ready, when engaged in 
the most busy employments of his office, to receive 
without a blush, any guests, however high, who 
might chance to call. 

The tranquil months glided on. Franklin was 
prospered in business, paid his debts, and began to 
accumulate a little property. Our young philoso- 
pher was never an impassioned lover. As he would 



110 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

contemplate, in his increasing prosperity, removing 
to another more commodious office, so he now 
thought, having reached the age of twenty-four, that 
it might be expedient for him to have a home of his 
own, and a wife to take care of his domestic affairs. 

He had let a portion of the house which he 
used for his printing office, to a mechanic of the 
Junto by the name of Godfrey. He conferred with 
Mrs. Godfrey upon the subject. She had a relative, 
a very pretty girl, Miss Godfrey, whom she highly 
recommended and brought, as it were by accident, 
to take tea with Franklin. She was graceful, ami- 
able, and a child of parents well to do in the world. 
Franklin was a remarkably handsome and fascinating 
young man. The courtship proceeded successfully 
and rapidly. 

The reader will be interested in seeing Franklin's 
own account of this affair. He writes, in his Auto* 
biography : 

" Mrs. Godfrey projected a match with a rela- 
tion's daughter, took opportunities of bringing us 
often together, till a serious courtship on my part 
ensued ; the girl being, in herself, very deserving. 
The old folks encouraged me by continual invitations 
to supper, and by leaving us together, till at length 
it was time to explain. Mrs. Godfrey managed our 
little treaty. I let her know I expected as much 



THE DAWN OF PROSlERlfY. Ill 

money v/ith their daughter as would pay off my 
remaining debt for the printing-house ; which I 
believe was not then above a hundred pounds. She 
brought me word they had no such sum to spare ; I 
said they might mortgage their house in the loan- 
office. The answer to this, after some days, was, 
that they did not approve the match ; that, on 
inquiry of Mr. Bradford, they had been informed the 
printing business was not a profitable one, the types 
would soon be worn out, and more wanted ; that 
Keimer and David Harvy had failed one after the 
other, and I should probably soon follow them ; and 
therefore I was forbidden the house, and the daugh- 
ter was shut up." 

Occasionally Franklin had gone to the home of 
Mrs. Read, the mother of the unhappy Deborah. 
His conscience reproached him for his conduct to 
that good girl. She was always dejected and soli- 
tary, and with a broken heart clung to her mother 
her only friend. It is doubtful whether she were 
ever legally married to Rogers. It was rumored 
that at the time of their marriage, he was the hus- 
band of one, if not more wives. If legally married 
there was another serious obstacle in her path. Rog 
ers had run away to the West Indies. Rumor alone 
had announced his death. He might be still living. 

Franklin s sympathy gradually became excited 



112 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

in her behalf. And at length he proposed that, 

regardless of all the risks, they should be married. 
It seems that he had announced to her very dis- 
tinctly that he had a living child, and very honora- 
bly he had decided that that child of dishonor was to 
be taken home and trained as his own. 

These were sad nuptials. The world-weary wife 
knew not but that she had another husband still 
living, and a stigma, indelible, rested upon Franklin. 
The marriage took place on the first of September, 
1730. It subsequently appears that Rogers, the 
potter, was really dead. The child was taken home 
and reared with all possible tenderness and care. It 
is a little remarkable that nothing is known of what 
became of the mother of that child. The boy grew 
up to manhood, espoused the Tory cause, when the 
tories were hunting his father to hang him, and by 
his ungrateful, rebellious conduct, pierced his heart 
with a thousand empoisoned daggers. 

Mrs. Franklin proved in all respects an excellent 
woman, and an admirable wife for her calm, philo- 
sophic and unimpassioned husband. Franklin never 
had a journeyman in his office who performed his 
functions more entirely to his satisfaction, than his 
wife discharged her responsible duties. She was 
always amiable, industrious and thrifty. 

There was a little shop attached to the printing- 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. II3 

office which Mrs. Franklin tended. She also aided 
her husband in folding and distributing the papers, 
and with a mother's love trained, in the rudiments 
of education, the child whose mother was lost. 

Franklin, in his characteristic, kindly apprecia- 
tion of the services of all who were faithful in his 
employ, speaks in the following commendatory 
terms of the industrial excellencies of his wife. When 
far away dazzled by the splendors, and bewildered 
by the flattery of European courts, he wrote to her, 

** It was a comfort to me to recollect that I had 
once been clothed, from head to foot, in woolen and 
linen of my wife's manufacture, and that I never 
was prouder of any dress in my life." 

In Franklin's Autobiography, as published by 
Sparks, we read, " We have an English proverb that 
says, * He that would thrive, must ask his wife.' It 
was lucky for me that I had one as much disposed 
to industry and frugality as myself. She assisted 
me cheerfully in my business, folding and stitching 
pamphlets, tending shop, purchasing old linen rags, 
for the paper-makers, etc. We kept no idle ser- 
vants ; our table was plain and simple, our furniture 
of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast was, 
for a long time, bread and milk, (no tea) and I ate 
it out of a two-penny earthern porringer, with a 
pewtei -spoon. 



»14 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" But mark how luxury will enter families, and 
make a progress in spite of principle. Being called 
one morning to breakfast, I found it in a china bowl, 
with a spoon of silver. They had been bought for 
me without my knowledge, by my wife, and had cost 
her the enormous sum of three and twenty shillings ; 
for which she had no other excuse or apology to 
make, but that she thought her husband deserved a 
silver spoon and china bowl, as well as any of his 
neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate 
or china in our house ; which afterward, in a course 
of years, as our wealth increased, augmented gradu- 
ally to several hundred pounds in value." * 

While thus engaged he conceived the idea of es- 
tablishing a public subscription library. His knowl- 
edge of human nature taught him that if he pre- 
sented the enterprise as his own, feelings of jeal- 
ousy might be excited, and it might be imagined 
that he was influenced by personal ambition. He 
therefore said that a number of gentlemen had 
adopted the plan, and had requested him to visit 
the lovers of books and of reading, and solicit their 
subscriptions. Each subscriber was to contribute 
two pounds to start the enterprise, and to pay a 
yearly assessment of ten shillings. 

By the arduous labors of five months, Franklin 

♦ Life of Franklin, by Sparks, p. I02. 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 11$ 

obtained fifty names. With this the enterprise 
commer.ced. Such was the origin of the Philadel- 
phia Library, now one of the most important insti- 
tutions of the kind in our land. In the year 1861, 
seventy thousand volumes were reported as on its 
shelves. 

Philadelphia contained a population of nearly 
ten thousand people. Pennsylvania was decidedly 
the central point for European emigration. Its 
climate was delightful ; its soil fertile ; and Wil- 
liam Penn's humane policy with the Indians had 
secured for the colony peace and friendship with the 
native inhabitants for more than fifty years. 

The white man, on this continent, has told his 
own story. The Indians have had no historians. 
But nothing is more clear than that in almost every 
instance they were goaded to war by the unendura- 
ble wrongs which were inflicted upon them.* Un- 
til Braddock's dreadful defeat, Pennsylvania had 
scarcely known a single alarm. In the summer of 
1749, twelve thousand Germans landed at Philadel- 

* ** No other British colony admits of the evidence of an Indian 
against a white man ; nor are the complaints of Indians against 
white men duly regarded in other colonies ; whereby these poor peo- 
ple endure the most cniel treatment from the very worst of our own 
people, without hope of redress. And all the Indian wars in our col' 
onies were occasioned by such means." 

Importance of the British Plantations in America to these King- 
douis, London. 1731. 



Il6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

phia. This was the average number for many years. 
The policy of William Penn had been to estab- 
lish upon the banks of the Delaware, an extended 
and beautiful village, where every house should have 
its lawn and its garden for vegetables and flowers. 
In the year 1732, when Franklin was twenty-six 
years of age, the dwellings of this village were most- 
ly of brick or stone, and were spread along the 
banks of the river for the distance of a mile, with 
streets running back into the interior to the distance 
of about half a mile. 

The prosperity of Philadelphia, indeed of Penn- 
sylvania, was remarkable. Provisions and the most 
delicious fruits were in great abundance. Even the 
pigs were fattened upon the most luscious peaches. 
Each family in the city kept its cow, which grazed 
upon the common lands on the outskirts of the town. 
The Philadelphia of that period was a green village, 
beautifully shaded by trees, and presenting to every 
visitor an aspect of rare attractions. Professor 
Peter Kalm, who published an exceedingly interest- 
ing account of his travels in North America between 
the years 1748 and 175 1, writes, 

** There were fine orchards all about the city. 
The country people in Sweden and Finland guard 
their turnips more carefully than the people here 
do the most exquisite fruits. A Philadelphian has 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. II7 

SO much liberty and abundance that he lives in his 
house like a king." 

The Quakers, or as they prefer to be called, the 
Friends, at that time composed about one-third of 
the population of Philadelphia, and one-half of the 
State of Pennsylvania. They were a remarkably in- 
telligent, industrious and worthy people. Probably a 
better and more thrifty community was never colo- 
nized on this globe. 

The state of society has greatly changed since 
that day, and customs, which were then deemed es- 
sential, have since become obsolete. For instance, 
the whipping-post, the pillory, and the stocks, were 
prominent in the market-place and were in frequent 
use. There was a public whipper, who, for his repul- 
sive services, received a salary of fifty dollars a year. 
Until as late as 1760, women were frequently publicly 
whipped. It is said that a whipping occurred on an 
average, twice a month. 

The dress of gentlemen was gaudy and extrav- 
agant, unsurpassed by that of French or British 
courtiers. Immense wigs, with their profusion of 
waves or curls, were in use by the gentry. Very 
tight knee-breeches were worn, with silk stockings, 
and shoes embellished with immense silver buckles 
highly polished. Their coats were richly embroi- 
dered, often of silk velvet, and their full flow reached 



Il8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

below the knees. Ruffled shirts and ruffled wrist- 
bands of linen, of snowy whiteness, added to the 
beauty of the dress. A jewelled scabbard containing 
a polished sword hung by the side. A three-cornered 
hat completed this showy attire. There is not a 
Rocky Mountain Indian in his most gorgeous war- 
dress of paint and plumes, who would attract more 
attention walking down Broadway, than would Ben- 
jamin Franklin as he was painted in 1726. 

His portrait was taken when he was in London, 
working as a journeyman printer. Contrary to the 
general impression, Franklin was then, and through 
all his life, fully conscious of the advantages which 
dress confers. When surrounded by the homage of 
the court of Versailles, there was no courtier in those 
magnificent saloons more attentive to his attire than 
was Benjamin Franklin. His keen sagacity taught 
him the advantage of appearing in a dress entirely 
different from that of the splendid assembly around 
him, and thus he attracted universal observation. 
But never did he appear in the presence of these 
lords and ladies but in a costly garb to which he had 
devoted much attention. 

Mr. Parton, speaking of the portrait which Frank- 
lin then had painted in London, says, 

" The fair, full, smiling face of Franklin is sur- 
rounded in this picture by a vast and stiff horse- hair 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. II9 

wig ; and his well-developed figure shows imposingly 
in a voluminous and decorated coat that reaches 
nearly to his heels. Under his left arm he carries 
his cocked hat. His manly bosom heaves under 
snowy ruffles, and his extensive wrist-bands are ex- 
posed to view by the shortness of his coat sleeves.*' 

Between the years 1740 and 1775, while abun- 
dance reigned in Pennsylvania, and there was peace 
in all her borders, a more happy and prosperous 
population could not perhaps be found on this globe. 
In every home there was comfort. The people gen- 
erally were highly moral, and knowledge was exten- 
sively diffused. Americans, who visited Europe, were 
deeply impressed by the contrast. In the Old World 
they saw everywhere indications of poverty and 
suffering. Franklin wrote, after a tour in Great 
Britain in 1772, 

" Had I never been in the American colonies, but 
were to form my judgment of civil society by what 
I have lately seen, I should never advise a nation of 
savages to admit of civilization. For, I assure you, 
that in the possession and enjoyment of the various 
comforts of life, compared with these people, every 
Indian is a gentleman ; and the effect of this kind of 
civil society seems to be the depressing multitudes 
below the savage state, that a few may be raised 
above it." 



120 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Yet let It not be supposed that the effects of the 
fall were not visible here, or that man's inhumanity 
to man had ceased. There were bickerings, and 
heart burnings, and intense political struggles, in 
which the strong endeavored to extend their power, 
and the weak endeavored to throw off the shackles 
with which they were bound. William Penn com- 
plains of the ambitious politicians who he said 
thought — " nothing taller than themselves but the 
trees. John Adams denounced in severest terms 
the tricks of the petty politicians ; and speaking of 
the more ambitious ones who sought the positions 
of governor or custom-house ofificers, he writes : 

" These seekers are actuated by a more ravenous 
sort of ambition and avarice." 

For twenty years Franklin continued a prosper- 
ous but uneventful life, as an active business man in 
Philadelphia. His integrity, his sagacity, and his 
prosperity, rapidly increased the esteem in which he 
was held. But still he was engaged in business as a 
printer and a shop-keeper, which would not now 
give him admission into what he called the higher 
circles of society. 

He not only edited, printed and published his 
newspaper, but he also kept books for sale and a 
small quantity of stationery, and also was a binder 
of books. He made and sold ink ; was an extensive 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 121 

dealer in rags ; and soap and feathers could be pur 
chased at his shop. We find in his advertisements 
the announcement of coffee and other groceries for 
sale. 

And still his printing-office gradually became the 
nucleus for the gathering of the most intelligent 
and influential men. If any important project was 
on foot, it was deemed essential to consult Benjamin 
Franklin. His Gazette proved a great success, and 
was incomparably the ablest paper published in the 
colonies.* 

Franklin's editorials were very sparkling, and are 
considered as among the most brilliant of his intel- 
lectual efforts. He was almost invariably good 
natured, and the design of all he wrote, was to pro- 
mote integrity and kindly feeling. He would write 
an article, as if from a correspondent, which would 
give him an opportunity to return an amusing ar- 
ticle in the next number. A complete file of 
the paper is preserved in the Philadelphia Li- 
brary. 

In 1732, Franklin issued the first number of the 
Almanac, called Poor Richard, which subsequently 
attained such wide renown. The popularity of the 
work was astonishing ; for twenty-five years it aver- 
aged ten thousand copies a year. This was a won- 

* Life and Woi:ks of John Adams, vol. ii, p. '65. 
6 



122 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

derful sale in those times. Everybody was quoting 
the pithy sayings of Poor Richard.* 

FrankHn was an extensive reader. He had a 
memory almost miraculous ; and his mind was so 
constituted, that it eagerly grasped and retained any 
sharp or witty sayings. Thus, though many of the 
maxims of Poor Richard originated with him, others 
were gleaned from the witticisms of past ages, upon 
which Franklin placed the imprint of his own pe- 
culiar genius. I give a few of those renowned 
maxims which soon became as household words, in 
every shop and dwelling of our land. 

" There is no little enemy." " Three may keep 
a secret if two of them are dead.'* " He is no clown 
who drives the plough, but he that does clownish 
things." *' Wealth is not his that has it, but his 
that enjoys it." " The noblest question in the 
world is, * what good may I do in it.' " " Keep 
your eye wide open before marriage ; half shut 
afterward." 

Franklin was not a poet. He could scheme 
easily, but even his rhymes were poor. His sense 
of delicacy was quite obtuse, but perhaps not more 

* " And now after the lapse of one hundred and thirty years, we 
find persons willing to give twenty-five dollars for a single number, 
and several hundred dollars for a complete set. Nay, the reading 
matter of several of the numbers, has been republished within these 
few years, and that republication already begins to command th« 
price of a rarity. — Parton's Life of Franklin^ vol i, p. 231. 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 1 23 

SO, than we ought to expect from the unrefined 
times in which he lived.* 

The increasing circulation of the Pennsylvania 
Gazette, the extensive sale of Poor Richard, and the 
success of many of the small books which Franklin 
published, soon placed the finances of Franklin in a 
very flourishing condition. This enabled him ta 
send for every important work published in Eng- 
land. As he was never an hour in idleness, and sel- 
dom entered any place of popular amusement, he 
found time to study all these solid and useful works. 
The superior powers with which God had endowed 
him, enabled him to glean from their pages, and 
store up in his memory, all that was most valuable 
By these indefatigable studies, he was rapidly be- 
coming one of the most learned of men, and was 
preparing himself for that brilliant career, in which,, 
as a statesman and a philosopher, he stood in the 
first ranks of those who had been deemed the great 
men of earth. 

♦ " Poor Richard, at this day, would be reckoned an indecent pro- 
duction. All great humorists were all indecent, before Charles Dick- 
ens. They used certain words which are now never pronounced by 
polite persons, and are never printed by respectable printers ; and 
they referred freely to certain subjects which are familiar to every liv- 
ing creature, but which it is now agreed among civilized beings, shalli 
not be topics of conversation. In this respect poor Richard was no 
worse, and not much better than other colonial periodicals, some of 
which contain thii gs incredibly obscene, as much so as the strongest 
passages of Sterne SmoUet and De Foe." — Parton. 



124 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

His first entrance to public life was as Clerk to 
the General Assembly, which was then the Legisla- 
ture of the Pennsylvania Colony. This was an 
office of but little emolument or honor. His first 
election was unanimous. The second year, though 
successful, he was opposed by an influential member. 

Franklin, who wished to have every one his 
friend, was anxious to conciliate him. He accom 
plished his purpose shrewdly — perhaps cunningly, is 
tiot too strong a word to use. Having heard that 
the gentleman had a very rare and valuable book in 
his library, he wrote him a very polite and flattering 
letter, soliciting the loan of it. No man could pen 
such an epistle more adroitly than Franklin. 

After a few days he returned the book with one 
of his most exquisite notes of thanks. The gentle- 
man was caught in the trap. Charmed with the 
urbanity Franklin displayed in the correspondence, 
the next time he met the philosopher, he grasped 
him cordially by the hand. Though he had never 
spoken to him before, he invited him to his house. 

Franklin, commenting upon this adventure^ 
writes, 

" He ever after manifested a readiness to serve 
me on all occasions, so that we became great 
friends, and our friendship continued to his death. 
This is another instance of the truth of an old 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 12$ 

maxim I had learned, which says * He that hath 
once done you a kindness will be more ready to do 
you another than he whom you yourself have 
obliged,' and it shows how much more profitable it 
is prudently to remove than to resent, return, and 
continue inimical proceedings.** 

There was something in this transaction, an 
apparent want of sincerity, an approach to trickery, 
which will impress many readers painfully. It was 
a shrewd manoeuvre, skillfully contrived, and suc- 
cessfully executed. The perfect sincerity of a 
friendly and magnanimous mind is the safest guide 
in all the emergencies of life. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Religious and Philosophic Views. 

Studious habits — New religion — Personal habits — Church of the 
Free and Easy — His many accomplishments — The career of 
Hemphall — Birth and Death of Franklin's son — The Ministry of 
Whitefield — Remarkable friendship between the philosopher and 
the preacher — Prosperity of Franklin — His convivial habits — 
The defense of Philadelphia — Birth of a daughter — The Phila- 
delphia Academy. 

Franklin was a perservering and laborious stu- 
dent, for whatever he read he studied. With in- 
creasing intellectual tastes, he found time every day 
to devote many hours to his books. His reading 
was of the most elevated and instructive kind. It 
consisted almost exclusively of scientific treatises, 
and of history, biography, voyages and travels. 

His mind was still struggling and floundering in 
the midst of religious and philosophical speculations. 
He seems, from some unexplained reason, to have 
been very unwilling to accept the religion of Jesus 
Christ ; and yet he was inspired undeniably by a 
very noble desire to be a good man, to attain a high 
position in morality. Earnestly he endeavored to 



RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHIC VIEWS. \2J 

frame for himself some scheme which would enable 
him to accomplish that purpose. 

At this time he wrote, 

** Few in public affairs act from a mere view of 
the good of their country, whatever they may pre- 
tend. Fewer still in public affairs act with a view to 
the good of mankind. There seems to me, at pres- 
ent, great occasion to raise a " United Party for 
Virtue," by forming the virtuous and good of all 
nations into a regular body, to be governed by suit- 
able good and wise rules, which good and wise men 
may probably be more unanimous in their obedience 
to, than common people are to common laws. I at 
present, think, that whoever attempts this aright, and 
is well qualified, cannot fail of pleasing God, and of 
meeting with success." 

Influenced by these exalted motives, he concen- 
trated all the energies of his well informed mind to 
the organization of a new religion. To this church 
he gave the name of ** The Society of the Free and 
Easy." The members were to be Free from vice, 
and consequently. Easy in mind. The first article 
of his creed was that he would have no creed. And 
yet this religion, which drew an antagonistic distinc- 
tion between faith and works, denouncing all faith 
at the same time announced that its fundamental 
and absolutely essential faith was that piety con- 



V 



128 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

sisted in cherishing the ordinarily recognized virtues. 
These were Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, 
Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, 
Cleanliness, Tranquillity, Charity and Humility. 

His ritual consisted in devoting one week to the 
cultivation of each of these virtues. He had no Sab- 
bath, no preached Gospel, no Sacraments. But his 
creed, with its corresponding practice, certainly ex- 
erted a very powerful influence, and in many respects 
beneficial, upon his own mind. 

With his list of virtues before him, this remarka- 
ble young man commenced the effort vigorously to 
attain perfection. The Christian reader will not be 
at all surprised to read from Franklin's pen the fol- 
lowing account of the result: 

" I was surprised to find myself so much fuller 
of faults than I had imagined. But I had the satis- 
faction of seeing them diminish. After a while I 
went through one course only in a year, and after- 
wards only one in several years ; till at length I 
omitted them entirely, being employed in voyages 
and business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs 
that interfered." 

Franklin was a very proud man. He could not 
but be conscious of his great superiority over most 
of those with whom he associated. He avows that 
the virtue of humility he never could attain. Th<; 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 1 29 

semblance of that virtue he could easily assume, but 
he says that the pride of his heart was such that 
had he attained it, he would have been proud of his 
humility. He adopted the following as the ordina- 
ry routine of life. 

He rose at five, very carefully performed his 
ablutions, and then offered a brief prayer to a being 
whom he called ** Powerful Goodness." Why he 
should have preferred that address to the more sim- 
ple one of " Our Heavenly Father," we know not. 
He then laid out the business of the day, and for a 
short time directed his mind to the especial virtue 
which he intended that day and week to cherish.* 

In the freshness of all his morning energies he 
devoted himself to his books for an hour and a half. 
This brought him to breakfast-time. At eight 
o'clock he commenced work in his shop, to which 
he devoted himself assiduously until twelve. An 
hour was then allowed for dinner and rest. At one 
he returned to the arduous labors of his shop, labors 
which engrossed all his energies, and continued the 
employment until six. His day's hard work was 
then ordinarily closed. He took his supper, re- 

* "It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous pro- 
ject of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without commit- 
ting any fault at any time. As I knew, or thought I knew what was 
right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one 
and avoid the other. But I soon found that I had undertaken a task 
of m:)re difficulty than I had imagined." — Autobiography, p. 105, 
6* 



130 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ceived his friends, or more commonly read and 
studied until ten o'clock at night, when almost 
invariably he retired to his bed. 

His mind still for a time continued much inter- 
ested in his plan for the church of the Free and 
Easy. We find among his papers that he decided 
[that candidates for admission should, after a careful 
1 'examination, to ascertain that their creed was, to 
have no creed, and that their faith was, to abjure all 
faith, be subject to a probation of thirteen weeks. 
It seems that no candidate ever applied for admis- 
sion. There were no apostles to wander abroad 
proclaiming the new gospel. Increasing business 
absorbed Franklin's time, and the new church was 
forgotten. 

The sole motive which Franklin urged to in- 
spire to action, was self-interest. " You should be 
honest," he would say, " because it is politic. You 
abstain from vice for the same reason that you 
should not drink poison, for it will hurt you." In 
the enforcement of these views he writes, 

" It was rpy design to explain and enforce this 
doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because 
they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are 
hurtful. It was, therefore, every one's interest to 
be virtuous who wished to be happy in this 
world. And I should from this circumstance (there 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 13I 

oeing always in the world a number of rich nr.er- 
chants, nobility, states and princes, who have need 
of honest instruments for the management of their 
affairs, and such being so rare) have endeavored to 
convince young persons that no qualities are so likely 
to make a poor man's fortune as those of probity 
and integrity." 

It may be doubted whether such considerations 
ever made a truly good man. Virtue must be loved 
for its own sake. Vice must be deserted for its in- 
herent baseness, even though it may bring a great 
reward. 

Franklin, in the prosecution of his studies, devo- 
ted himself to French, Spanish, Italian, and even to 
Latin. In all these he became a proficient. His 
mind was wonderfully prompt in the acquisition of 
knowledge. He could hardly have devoted himself 
more assiduously and successfully to these studies, 
had some good angel whispered in the ear of the 
young printer the astounding intelligence, " You are 
yet to be the ambassador of the United States to 
European courts. You are to appear in those glit- 
tering assemblages as the equal of the highest noble ; 
and are to enjoy the hospitalities of kings and 
queens. Familiarity with these languages, and the 
intellectual culture you are thus acquiring will be of 
more value to you than mines of gold." 



132 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

This remarkable man prized all branches of 
knowledge ; and seemed to excel in all. He devoted 
much attention to music. With much skill he 
played upon the harp, the guitar, the violin, and the 
violincello. 

In the year 1734, a young preacher by the name 
of Hemphill came to Philadelphia from England. 
He was deemed by the orthodox clergy, very hete- 
rodox in his opinions. Probably suspicions of his 
orthodoxy were enhanced from the fact that he 
brought high testimonials of eloquence from several 
of the most prominent deists and free-thinkers in 
England. He was very fluent, at times very elo- 
quent, and Franklin was charmed with the man and 
his doctrines. 

Boldly denouncing all creeds, and all religious 
faith, he announced it as his creed and his faith that 
piety consists in conduct alone. Crowds flocked to 
hear him. One day, after preaching a very eloquent 
sermon, some one discovered that he had stolen that 
sermon from Dr. James Foster, the most popular 
preacher in London. An investigation took place, 
in which he was compelled to acknowledge that he 
had stolen every one of his sermons. Franklin 
writes, 

" This detection gave many of our party disgust, 
who accordingly abandoned his cause, and occasioned 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 1 33 

our more speedy discomfiture in the synod. I stuck 
by him, however. I rather approved his giving us 
good sermons composed by others, than bad ones 
of his own, though the latter was the practice of our 
common teachers." 

Had the young man said frankly, ** I am rehears- 
ing to you the most eloquent sermons of the most 
eloquent English divines," no one could have found 
any fault. But for him to assume that the sermons 
were his own, and that he personally was entitled to 
the credit of whatever power they exhibited, was 
certainly practicing deception. It was a gross 
violation of Franklin's cardinal virtue of sincerity. 
It was unworthy of Franklin, in his charitable regard 
for the offender, to gloss over the real criminality of 
the offence. 

A year after Franklin's marriage, a son was born 
to him, to whom he gave the name of Francis Fol- 
ger Franklin. All accounts agree in describing the 
child as endowed with remarkable beauty and intel- 
ligence. Probably Franklin never loved any being 
as he loved that child. In the year 1736, when 
this wonderful boy was but four years of age, he 
was seized with the small-pox and died. Even the 
philosophic Franklin was almost crushed by the 
terrible calamity. The cheering views of the Chris- 
tian faith could not sustain him. He had no vivid 



134 BENJAMIN FR.\NKLIN. 

conception of his cherub boy an angel in Heaven 
awaiting his father's arrival. He could only say 
that " I am inclined to believe that my child has not 
passed away into utter annihilation ; but who 
knows ? Many of the wisest and best on earth 
utterly discard the idea of a future existence. They 
deem the thought the conceit of ignorance and 
fanaticism." 

We read the following epitah on his little grave- 
stone with much sympathy for the bereaved father. 
He could only write 

Francis F. 

Son of Benjamin and Deborah 

Franklin. 

Deceased November 12, 1736, 

Aged four years, one month and one day. 

The delight of all who knew him. 

In the year 1739, Rev. George Whitefield arrived 
in Philadelphia. It is remarkable that a warm 
friendship should have sprung up between men so 
very diverse in character. But Franklin could not 
be insensible to the wonderful power of this 
preacher, ir promoting public morals, and in trans 
forming the worst of men into valuable citizens, 
faithfully performing all the duties of ife. It is sur- 
prising that this effect of the Gospel did not teach 
him that Christianity is the '' wisdom of God, and 
the power of God to salvation." Love was emphati- 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 1 35 

cally the message which Whitefield, with tearful e}'e3 
and throbbing heart, proclaimed to the wicked and 
the sorrowing. " God so loved the worlds that he 
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish but should have everlast- 
ing life." Christ " came not into the world to con- 
demn the world, but that the world through him 
might be saved." 

Such were the themes which this apostolic 
preacher unfolded, and which moved human hearts, 
in these new colonies as seventeen hundred years 
ago they were moved by the preaching of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and his disciple Paul, upon the plains 
of Asia. 

Whitefield taught that ^^/^V/ controlled conduct. 
As a man sincerely believes so will he act. Frank- 
lin, with his accustomed candor, in his Autobiogra- 
phy, wrote in the following terms, the effects of the 
preaching of this remarkable reformer : 

*' The multitudes of all sects and denominations 
that attended his sermons were enormous. It was 
wonderful to see the change soon made in the man- 
ners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or 
•ndifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the 
world were growing religious ; so that one could not 
walk through the town, in an evening, without hear- 
ing psalms sung in different families of every street. 



1^6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" Mr. Whitefield, on leaving us, went preacniiig 
all the way through the colonies to Georgia. The 
settlement of that province had been lately begun ; 
but instead of being made with hardy, industrious 
husbandmen, accustomed to labor, the only peopie 
fit for such an enterprise, it was with families of 
broken shop-keepers, and other insolvent debtors ; 
many of indolent and idle habits, taken out of the 
jails who, being set down in the woods, unqualified 
for clearing land, and unable to endure the hard- 
ships of a new settlement, perished in numbers, 
leaving many helpless children unprovided for, 

** The sight of their miserable situation inspired 
the benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield with the 
dea of building an Orphan House there in which 
they might be supported and educated. Returning 
northward, he preached up this charity, and made 
large collections." 

"I did not disapprove of the design ; but as 
Georgia was then destitute of materials and work- 
men, and it was proposed to send them from Phila- 
delphia at a great expense, I thought it would have 
been better to have built the house at Philadelphia, 
and brought the children to it. This I advised. 
But he was resolute in his first project, rejected my 
counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. 

" I happened soon after to attend one of his set- 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 1 3/ 

mons, in the course of which I perceived he in- 
tended to finish with a collection, and I silently 
resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in 
my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four 
silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold, (about twen- 
ty-five dollars). As he proceeded I began to soften, 
and concluded to give the copper ; another stroke 
of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and deter- 
mined me to give the silver; and he finished so 
admirably that I emptied my pockets wholly into 
the collector's dish, gold and all. 

** Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to 
suppose that he would apply these collections to his 
own private emolument. But I, who was intimate- 
ly acquainted with him, being employed in printing 
his sermons and journals, never had the least 
suspicion of his integrity ; but am to this day 
decidedly of the opinion, that he was in all his 
conduct a perfectly honest man ; and methinks my 
testimony ought have the more weight, as we had 
no religious connection. He used, indeed, some- 
times to pray for my conversion, but never had the 
satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. 
Ours was a friendship sincere on both sides, and 
lasted to his death."* 

At one time Franklin wrote to Whitefield, in 

• Autobiography of Franklin," as given by Sparks, p. 139. 



138 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Boston, inviting him, as he was about to come to 
Philadelphia, to make his house his home. The 
devout preacher replied, 

" If you make this offer for Christ's sake you will 
not lose your reward." 

Promptly the philosopher rejected any such mo- 
tive, and rejoined, 

" Do not be mistaken. It was not for Christ's 
sake I invited you, but for your own sake." 

In all the numerous letters, essays, and philo- 
sophical and religious disquisitions of Franklin, we 
seldom, I think, find a sentiment indicative of any 
high appreciation of the character of Jesus Christ : 
or the debt of gratitude we owe to him, either for 
his teaching or for his example. As Franklin dis- 
carded all idea of the Atonement, he of course could 
not express any gratitude for that which is, to the 
Christian, the crowning act even of divine love. 
This Saviour, to millions who cannot be counted, 
has proved, even if the comfort be a delusion, in 
temptation, disappointment, and death, more pre- 
cious than it is in the power of words to declare. 

One article from Franklin's newspaper, published 
in the year 1740, gives an idea of the extraordinary 
interest which the preaching of Whitefield excited. 

* On Thursday last the Reverend Mr. Whitefield 
left this city, and was accompanied to Chester by 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. 1 39 

about one hundred and fifty horse ; and preached 
there to about seven thousand people. On Friday 
he preached twice at Willings Town to about five 
thousand. On Saturday, at Newcastle, to about two 
thousand five hundred ; and the same evening at 
Christiana Bridge to about three thousand ; on Sun- 
day at White Clay Creek, he preached twice, resting 
about half an hour between the sermons, to eight 
thousand, of whom three thousand, it is computed, 
came on horseback. It rained most of the time, and 
yet they stood in the open air." 

The keenness of the scrutiny with which Franklin 
watched all the operations of nature, led him to the 
discovery of the before unknown fact that the fierce 
north-east storms which sweep our Atlantic coast 
invariably begin in the south-west, and move back- 
wards, diminishing in violence as they go. He also 
about this time, invented the Franklin stove, which 
in the day when wood was the only fuel consumed 
has invested so many firesides with a rare aspect of 
cheerfulness. He wrote a very ingenious pamphlet^ 
elucidating the philosophy of house-warming. 

There is great moral power in prosperity, when 
wisely accepted and enjoyed. Franklin was now a 
prosperous man. His income was constantly increas- 
ing. His virtues, and they were great ones, proved 
in all respects promotive of his worldly welfare. His 



.r40 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

journal was the leading paper, certainly in all that 
region, and had not its superior in any of the colo- 
nies. His renowned almanac, Poor Richard, attained 
an unexampled sale. The work executed in his 
printing office was so excellent as to bring in to him 
many orders even from the other provinces. The 
various books and pamphlets he had published had 
.all been successful. Philadelphia had already be- 
come the chief town of the Colonies. 

Notwithstanding Franklin's devotion to books, 
to business, and to philosophical research, he is rep- 
.resented to have been at this time, a jovial man, 
very fond of convivial gatherings. He could not 
only write a good song, but he could sing it, to the 
acceptance of his companions. One of these songs 
entitled *' The Old Man's Wish " he says he sang 
over a thousand times. We give the concluding 
stanza, illustrative of its general character. 

*• With a courage undaunted, may I face the last day, 
And when I am gone may the better sort say, — 
In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow. 
He has gone and not left behind him his fellow. 
For he governed his passions with absolute sway." 

There was, as usual, war in Europe. Enormous 
armies were burning cities and villages, drenching 
.the trampled harvest fields with blood, and filling 
.the humble hamlets of the poor with misery. There 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. I4I 

was every reason to fear that these awful storms, 
raised by the passions of depraved men, would reach 
the peaceful shores of the Delaware. Philadelphia 
was entirely undefended. It is said that there was 
not an available cannon in Pennsylvania. 

A well-armed privateer could at any hour, seize 
and sack the city. Quaker influence so far prevailed 
that the legislature could not be induced to raise a 
battery, or purchase a gun. Franklin wrote a very 
powerful pamphlet, called Plain Truth, urging the 
necessity of adopting some measures of defence. 
He showed how the colony could, at any time, be 
ravaged by a few vessels from any European nation 
then in conflict with England. I give a few extracts 
from this admirable pamphlet : 

** On the first alarm, terror will spread over all. 
Many will seek safety by flight. Those that are 
reputed rich will flee, through fear of torture to 
make them produce more than they are able. The 
man that has a wife and children, will find them 
hanging on his neck, beseeching him to quit the 
city, and save his life. Ail will run into confusion, 
amid cries and lamentations, and the hurry and dis- 
order of departures. The few that remain, will be 
unable to resist. 

" Sacking the city will be the first ; and burning 
it, in all probability, the last act of the enemy. This 



142 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

I believe will be the case, if you have timely notice. 
But what must be your condition, if suddenly sur^ 
prised without previous alarm, perhaps in the night. 
Confined to your houses, you will have nothing to 
trust but the enemy's mercy. Your best fortune 
will be to fall under the power of commanders of 
king's ships, able to control the mariners, and not 
into the hands of licentious privateers. 

" Who can without the utmost horror, conceive 
the miseries of the latter when your persons, for- 
tunes, wives and daughters, shall be subject to the 
wanton and unbridled rage, rapine, and lust, of 
negroes, mulattoes, and others, the vilest and most 
abandoned of mankind ? " 

This warning effectually roused the community. 
A public meeting was summoned, in the immense 
building erected to accommodate the crowds who 
flocked to hear Whitefield. Here Franklin ha- 
rangued the multitude. An Association of Defence 
was organized. Ten thousand persons enrolled 
their names. In a few days nearly every man in the 
province, who was not a Quaker, had joined some 
military organization. Each man purchased for 
himself a weapon, and was learning how to use it. 

Eighty companies were organized and disci- 
plined. The companies in Philadelphia united in a 
regiment, and chose Franklin their colonel. Wisely 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. I43 

he declined the office, " conceiving myself unfit, ' he 
says. A battery was thrown up below the town. 
Some cannon were sent for from Boston. Several 
eighteen-pounders were obtained in New York, and 
more were ordered from London. In manning the 
battery, Franklin took his turn of duty as a com- 
mon soldier. 

There was not a little opposition to these meas- 
ures, but still the strong current of popular opinion 
was in their favor. Even the young Quakers, 
though anxious to avoid wounding the feelings of 
their parents, secretly gave their influence to these 
preparations of defence. The peace of Aix la 
Chapelle in 1748, terminated these alarms. But the 
wisdom and energy which Franklin had displayed, 
caused him to be regarded as the most prominent 
man in Pennsylvania. The masses of the people 
regarded him with singular homage and confidence. 

In 1744, Franklin had a daughter born, to whom 
he gave the name of Sarah. His motherless son 
William, who was destined to give his father great 
trouble, was growing up, stout, idle, and intractable. 
Early in the war he had run away, and enlisted on 
board a privateer. With much difficulty his father 
rescued him from these engagements. Franklin 
was evidently embarrassed to know what to do with 
the boy. He allowed him, when but sixteen years 



144 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of age, to enlist as a soldter in an expedition against 
Canada. 

About this time Franklin wrote to his sister 
Jane, whose son had also run away to enlist as a pri- 
vateer. He wished to console her by the assurance 
that it was not in consequence of unkind treatment, 
that the boys were induced thus to act. He wrote : 

" When boys see prizes brought in, and quanti- 
ties of money shared among the men, and their gay 
living, it fills their heads with notions that half dis- 
tract them ; and puts them quite out of conceit with 
trades and the dull ways of getting money by work- 
ing. My only son left my house unknown to us all, 
and got on board a privateer, from whence I fetched 
him. No one imagined it was hard usage at home 
that made him do this. Every one that knows me 
thinks I am too indulgent a parent, as well as 
master." 

The father of Benjamin Franklin died in Boston, 
at the great age of eighty-nine years. He had se- 
cured, in a very high degree, the respect of the peo- 
ple, not only by his irreproachable morals, but by 
his unfeigned piety. The Boston News Letter, of 
January 17, 1745, in the following brief obituary, 
chronicles his death : 

"Last night died Mr. Josiah Franklin, tallow 
chandler, and soap maker. By the force of steady 



THE DAWN OF PROSPERITY. I45 

temperance he had made a constitution, none of the 
strongest, last with comfort to the age of eighty* 
nine years. And by an entire dependence on his 
Redeemer, and a constant course of the strictest 
piety and virtue, he was enabled to die as he lived, 
with cheerfulness and peace, leaving a numerous 
posterity the honor of being descended from a per- 
son who, through a long life, supported the character 
of an honest man." 

In the year 1743 Franklin drew up a plan for an 
Academy in Philadelphia. In consequence of the 
troubled times the tract was not published until the 
year 1749. It was entitled, " Proposals Relating to 
the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania.** The sug- 
gestions he presented indicated a wide acquaintance 
with the writings of the most eminent philosophers. 
He marked out minutely, and with great wisdom, 
the course of study to be pursued. It is pleasant to 
read the following statement, in this programme. 
Urging the study of History, he writes, 

" History will also afford frequent opportunities 
of showing the necessity of a public religion^ from its 
usefulness to the public ; the advantages of a reli- 
gious character among private persons ; the mis- 
chiefs of superstition and the excellency of the Chris^ 
tian religion above all others, ancient and modern." 

Perhaps this tribute to the excellence of Chris- 
7 



146 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



♦ 



tianity ought in some degree to modify the impres- 
sion left upon the mind, by Franklin's studious 
avoidal, in all his writings, of any allusion to the 
name of Jesus Christ its founder. 

Twenty-five thousand dollars were speedily raised 
for this institution. All the religious sects har- 
moniously united. One individual from each sect 
was appointed, to form the corporate body intrusted 
with the funds. But almost the entire care and 
trouble of rearing the building, and organizing the 
institution fell upon Franklin. He was found to be 
fully adequate to all these responsibilities. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Tradesman becomes a Philosopher. 

Franklin appointed Indian commissioner — Effects of Rum — Indiai 
logic — Accumulating honors — Benevolent enterprises — Frank- 
lin's counsel to Tennent — Efforts for city improvement — Anec- 
dotes — Franklin appointed postmaster — Rumors of War — Eng- 
land enlists the Six Nations in her cause — Franklin plans a Con- 
federacy of States — Plans rejected — Electrical experiments — 
Franklin's increase of income — Fearful experiments — The kite — 
New honors — Views of the French philosopher — Franklin's 
Religious views — His counsel to a young pleader — Post oflfice 
Reforms. 

In the year 1740, Franklin, then forty-four 
years of age, was appointed on a commission to 
form a treaty with the Indians at Carlisle. Frank- 
lin, knowing the frenzy to which the savages were 
plunged by intoxication, promised them that, if 
they would keep entirely sober until the treaty was 
concluded, they should then have an ample supply 
of rum. The agreement was made and faithfully 
kept. 

" They then," writes Franklin, " claimed and 
received the rum. This was in the afternoon. 
They were near one hundred men, women and chil- 
dren, and were lodged in temporary cabins, built in 



148 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 
the form of a square, just without the town. In the 

evening, hearing a great noise among them, the 

commissioners walked to see what was the matter. 

** We found that they had made a great bonfire 
in the middle of the square ; that they were all 
drunk, men and women quarreling and fighting. 
Their dark-colored bodies, half-naked, seen only by 
the gloomy light of the bonfire, running after and 
beating one another with firebrands, accompanied 
by their horrid yellings, form-ed a scene the most 
resembling our ideas of hell, that could well be im- 
agined. There was no appeasing the tumult, and 
we returned to our lodgings. At midnight a num- 
ber of them came thundering at our door demand- 
ing more rum, of which we took no notice. 

" The next morning they all seemed very much 
ashamed of the disgraceful orgies in which they had 
indulged. There was a law written in their own 
hearts, which told them that they had done wrong. 
Three chiefs were appointed to call upon the com- 
missioners with an humble apology. With down- 
cast looks they confessed their fault, and then with 
logic which more intelligent men sometimes use, en- 
deavored to throw the blame upon God. In remark- 
able speech one of them said, 

" * The Great Spirit, who made all things, made 
everything for some use. Whatever use he designed 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. I49 

anything for, that use it should be always put to. 
Now, when he made rum, he said, * Let this be for 

the Indians to get drunk with ! and it must be 

» »> 
so. 

The Governor at this time appointed Franklin a 
Justice of Peace. Franklin says he was much flat- 
tered by these accumulating honors. Soon he was 
elected to a seat, as one of the Legislators in the 
Assembly. Mainly through his influence, a hospital- 
for the sick was established in Philadelphia. 
Though the measure encountered much opposition, 
he carried it ; and the institution proved of incalcu- 
lable benefit. 

The Rev. Gilbert Tennent solicited Franklin's 
aid in raising money for building a Meeting House. 
As Franklin had been so continually engaged in 
asking for money for various objects of benevolence, 
he was afraid he should become obnoxious to his 
fellow-citizens, and declined. Mr. Tennent then 
requested him to give him a list of the names of 
those influential persons upon whom it would be 
well for him to call. Every Christian minister who 
reads this, will appreciate the nature of his embar- 
rassment. Franklin says that he thought it would 
be unbecoming in him, after having emptied the 
purses of his friends, to send other beggars to them,, 
with renewed importunities. This request he there- 



150 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

fore declined. Mr. Tennent then urged him to give 
him some advice. Franklin replied, 

•* That I will willingly do. In the first place, I 
advise you to apply to all those who you know will 
do something ; next, to those who you are uncer- 
tain whether they will give anything or not, and 
show them the list of those who have given ; and 
lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will 
give nothing, for in some of them you may be mis- 
taken." 

Mr. Tennent laughed heartily, and declared that 
he would rigorously follow out this advice. He did 
so. His success was wonderful ; a much larger sum 
was raised than he had anticipated, and soon a ca- 
pacious and beautiful Meeting House rose in Arch 
street. 

The streets of Philadelphia, though laid out with 
great regularity, were unpaved, and in wet weather 
were almost impassable quagmires. Franklin, by 
talking with his friends, and by urging the subject 
in his paper, at length succeeded in having a side- 
walk paved with stone, upon one of the most impor- 
tant streets. It gave great satisfaction, but the rest 
of the street not being paved, the mud was thrown 
by passing carriages upon it, and as the city em- 
ployed no street cleaners, the sidewalk soon ceased 
to afford a clean passage to pedestrians. 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. 15I 

Franklin found an industrious man who was will- 
ing to sweep the pavement twice a week, carrying 
off the dirt from before all the doors, for the sum of 
sixpence a month, to be paid by each house. 

The philosophic Franklin then, having started 
this enterprise, printed on a sheet of paper the great 
advantages of keeping the side-walk clean, and sent 
one of these papers to each house. He urged that 
much of the soiling of the interior of the houses 
would thus be avoided, that an attractive side-walk 
would lure passengers to the shops ; and that, in 
windy weather, their goods would be preserved from 
the dust. 

' After a few days he called, in person, at each 
house and shop to see who would subscribe sixpence 
a month. It was a great success. The cleanliness 
of the pavement in the important streets surrounding 
the market, greatly delighted the people, and pre- 
pared the way for carrying a bill which Franklin 
presented to the Assembly for paving and lighting 
all the important streets of the city. 

A gentleman, by the name of John Clifton, had 
placed a lamp before his door. This suggested the 
idea. Lamps were sent for from London. Globes 
were furnished. They were expensive. The smoke 
circulated in the globe and obstructed the light. 
They had to be wiped clean each day. An acciden- 



152 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

tal stroke demolished the whole globe. Franklin 
suggested four flat panes. One might be broken^ 
and easily replaced. Crevices were left below to ad 
mit a current of air, and a funnel to draw off the 
smoke. Thus for a long time the glass remained 
undimmed. 

Wherever Franklin went, he carried with him 
this spirit of improvement. When in London, he 
found the streets wretchedly dirty. One morning 
he found a poor woman at his door in Craven street, 
sweeping the sidewalk with a wretched broom. Her 
pallid and exhausted appearance touched the sympa- 
thies of Franklin. He asked who employed her. 
She replied : 

" Nobody. I am poor and in distress. I sweeps 
before gentlefolks's doors, and hopes they will give 
me something." 

Franklin immediately engaged her to sweep the 
whole street. It was nine o'clock in the morning. 
She was so languid and debilitated that he thought 
it would take her nearly all day. But in three 
hours she came for her shilling. Franklin thought 
she could not have done her work faithfully. He 
sent his servant to examine. He reported that the 
work was thoroughly done. A new problem rose 
before Franklin : If this feeble woman could in so 
short a time sweep such a street, a strong man, with 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER, 1 53 

a suitable broom, could certainly do it in half of 
the time. He therefore drew up a plan for cleaning 
the streets of London and Westminster, which was 
placed in the hands of one of the rnost influential of 
the public-spirited men of London. 

Franklin apologizes for speaking in his autobiog- 
raphy of such trifles. Very truly, he says, 

** Human felicity is produced not so much by 
great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as 
by little advantages that occur every day. Thus if 
you teach a poor young man to shave himself and 
keep his razor in order, you may contribute more 
to the happiness of his life than in giving him a 
thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, 
the regret only remaining of having foolishly con- 
sumed it. But in the other case, he escapes the 
frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of 
their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breath, and 
dull razors. He shaves when most convenient ta 
him, and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done 
with a good instrument." 

Nearly all the important offices in the colonies 
were filled by appointments from the British Crown. 
Foi' some time, Franklin had been employed as an 
assistant to the Postmaster General, in simplifying 
and bringing regularity into his accounts. Upon 
the death of the American Postmaster, Fianklin, in 



154 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

1753, was appointed jointly with Sir William Hunt- 
er to succeed him. The appointment was made 
by the Postmaster General in England. 

The post-office department had scarcely been 
self-supporting. It had never paid anything to the 
crown. The salary offered to the two postmasters 
was three thousand dollars a year each, if they 
could save that sum from the profits of the office. 
Franklin writes, 

" To do this a variety of improvements was ne- 
cessary. Some of these were inevitably, at first, 
expensive ; so that in the first four years, the office 
became above nine hundred pounds in debt to us. 
But it soon after began to repay us. And before I 
was displaced by a freak of the ministers, of which I 
shall hereafter speak, we had brought it to yield 
three times as much clear revenue to the crown as 
the post-office of Ireland. Since that imprudent 
transaction, they have received from it not one 
farthing." 

Again there were menaces of war, insane and de- 
moniac, to fill the world with tears and woe. As we 
read the record of these horrid outrages which 
through all the centuries have desolated this globe^ 
it would seem that there must be a vein of insanity 
as well as of depravity, in the heart of fallen man, 
England and France were again marshaling theif 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER, 1 55 

armies, and accumulating their fleets, for the terrible 
conflict. 

It was certain that France, in Canada, and Eng- 
land, in her colonies, could not live in peace here, 
ivhile the volcanic throes of war were shaking the 
Island of Great Britain, and the Continent of Europe. 

In the heart of New York, then almost an un- 
broken wilderness, there were six exceedingly fierce 
and war-like tribes called the Six Nations. Like the 
wolves they delighted in war. The greatness of a 
man depended on the number of scalps with which 
he could fringe his dress. These savage warriors 
were ready and eager to engage as the allies of those 
who would pay them the highest price. Mercy was 
an attribute of which they knew not even the name. 

It was not doubted that France would immedi- 
ately send her emissaries from Canada to enlist 
these savages on her side. Awful would be the woes 
with which these demoniac men could sweep our 
defenceless frontiers ; with the tomahawk and the 
scalping knife, exterminating families, burning villa- 
ges, and loading their pack-horses with plunder. To 
forestall the French, and to turn these woes from 
our own frontier to the humble homes of the Cana- 
dian emigrants, the English government appointed 
a commissioner to visit the chiefs of these tribes in 
the year 1754- 



156 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The all important council was to be held in Al- 
bany. Governor Hamilton appointed four commis- 
sioners, of whom Franklin was one, to act in behalf 
of Pennsylvania. They were furnished with rich 
gifts with which to purchase the favor of the Indians. 
It was a long and tedious journey from Philadelphia 
to Albany. 

Franklin, on this journey, was deeply impressed 
with the importance of a union of the colonies for 
-self-defence. He therefore drew up a plan for such 
union. Several gentlemen of the highest intelligence 
in New York, having examined it, gave it their cor- 
dial approval. He accordingly laid it before Con- 
gress. 

There were several other persons in other col- 
onies who were impressed as deeply as Franklin 
with a sense of the importance of such a confederacy, 
and they also sent in their suggestions. 

Congress appointed a committee of one from 
each province, to consider the several plans. The 
committee approved of Franklin's plan, and reported 
accordingly. While the commissioners were confer- 
ring with the Indians in Albany, Congress was en 
gaged in discussing the plans of a confederacy 
Franklin's plan was finally rejected. It did not 
meet the views either of the Assembly, or of the 
British Court. And here we see, perhaps the germs 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. 1 5/ 

of the great conflict which soon culminated in the 
cruel war of the Revolution. 

The Assembly objected to the plan as too aristo- 
cratic, conferring too much power upon the crown. 
The court emphatically rejected it as too democrat- 
ic, investing the people with too much power. 
Franklin ever affirmed that his plan was the true 
medium. Even the royalist governor of Pennsylva- 
nia warmly commended the compromise he urged. 

In visiting Boston he was shown an electric 
tube, recently sent from England. With this tube 
some very surprising electrical experiments were 
performed, ushering in a new science, of which then 
but very little was known. Franklin became in- 
tensely interested in the subject. Upon his return 
to Philadelphia, he devoted himself, with great 
assiduity, to experimenting with electric tubes. At 
this time he wrote to a friend, 

" I never was before engaged in any study that 
so totally engrossed my attention and my time, as 
this has lately done ; for what with making experi- 
ments when I can be alone, and repeating them to 
my friends and acquaintances, who, from the novelty 
of the thing, come contir^-^ally in crowds to see 
them, I have little leisure for anythirg else." 

This was during the winter of 1746-7. Franklin 
suggested that the electricity was collected, not 



158 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

created by friction. He also propounded the theory 
of positive and negative electricity. He was, at this 
time, comparatively a wealthy man, and conse- 
quently could afford to devote his time to philo- 
sophical investigation. It is estimated that his 
income, from his estates, amounted to about seven 
hundred pounds a year; this was equal to about 
six or seven thousand dollars at the present time. 
Mr. Parton writes, 

" Besides this independence, Franklin was the 
holder of two offices, worth together perhaps one 
hundred and fifty pounds a year. His business, then 
more flourishing than ever, produced an annual 
profit, as before computed, of two thousand pounds ; 
bringing up his income to the troublesome and 
absurd amount of nearly three thousand pounds ; 
three times the revenue of a colonial governor." 

Under these prosperous circumstances, Franklin 
withdrew from active business, became a silent part- 
ner in the firm, and devoted nearly all his time to 
the new science. He wrote, in the autumn of 1748 
to his friend Cadwallader Golden of New York, 

" I have removed to a more quiet part of the 
town, where I am settlirg my old accounts, and 
hope soon to be quite master of my own time, and 
no longer, as the song has it, " at every one's call 
but my own." 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. 1 59 

" Thus you see I am in a fair way of having no 
other tasks than such as I shall like to give myself 
and of enjoying what I look upon as a great happi- 
ness, leisure to read, study, make experiments, and 
converse at large with such ingenious and worthy 
men, as are pleased to honor me with their friend- 
ship or acquaintance, on such points as may produce 
something for the common benefit of mankind, unin- 
terrupted by the cares and fatigues of business." 

He wrote a treatise upon thundergusts, which 
displayed wonderful sagacity, and which arrested 
the attention of nearly all the philosophers in Eu- 
rope and America. The all-important topics of this 
exceedingly important document, were the power 
of points to draw off electricity, and also the simi- 
larity of electricity and lightning. He therefore 
urged that metallic rods might be attached to 
buildings and ships, which, pushing their needle 
points above roofs and masts, might draw the elec- 
tric fire harmlessly from the clouds. He. confesses 
that he cannot imagine why the points should pos- 
sess this curious power, but urges that facts seem 
to demonstrate it. 

One day, for the entertainment of his friends, he 
had made arrangements to kill a turkey with an elec- 
tric shock. Two large jars were heavily charged. 
Incautiously manipulating, he took the shock him* 



l6o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



• 



self. In the following language, he describes the 
effect : 

** The flash was very great, and the crack was as 
loud as a pistol ; yet my senses being instantly 
gone, I neither saw the one nor heard the other; 
nor did I feel the stroke on my hand, though I 
afterwards found it raised a round swelling where 
the fire entered, as big as half a pistol bullet. 

" I then felt what I know not well how to de- 
scribe, a universal blow throughout my whole body 
from head to foot, which seemed within as well as 
without ; after which the first thing I took notice of 
was a violent, quick shaking of my body, which 
gradually remitting, my sense as gradually returned, 
and then, I thought the bottle must be discharged, 
but could not conceive how, till at last I perceived 
the chain in my hand, and recollected what I had 
been about to do. 

" That part of my hand and fingers which held 
the chain, was left white as though the blood had 
been driven out ; and remained so eight or ten 
minutes after, feeling like dead flesh ; and I had 
numbness in my arms and the back of my neck 
which continued to the next morning, but wore off." 

Franklin was much mortified at his awkwardness 
in this experiment. He declared it to be a notori- 
ous bl jnde'', and compared it with the folly of the 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. l6l 

Irishman, wlio wishing to steal some gun-powder, 
bored a hole through the cask with red hot iron. 
But notwithstanding this warning, not long after- 
wards, in endeavoring to give a shock to a paralytic 
patient, he received the whole charge himself, and 
was knocked flat and senseless on the floor. 

In the spring of 1752, Franklin tried his world 
renowned experiment with the kite. A June thun- 
der cloud was rising in all its majesty. Franklin, 
accompanied by his son, repaired to a field secretly, 
being afraid of the ridicule of the people. Here he 
raised the kite, made of a large silk handkerchief. 
The top of the perpendicular stick was pointed with 
a sharp metallic rod. The string was hemp with 
the exception of the part held in the hand, which 
was silk ; at the end of the hempen string a common 
key was suspended. With intense anxiety and no 
slight apprehension of danger, he held the line. 
Soon he observed the fibres of the hempen string to 
rise and separate themselves, as was the case of the 
hair on the head, when any one was placed on an 
insulating stool. He applied his knuckle to the key, 
and received an unmistakable spark. As the story 
is generally told, with occasionally slight contradic- 
tions, he applied his knuckle again and again to the 
key with a similar result. He charged a Leyden 
jar with the fluid and both he and his son took a 



1 62 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

shock. He then drew in his kite, packed up his ap- 
paratus and returned to his laboratory probably the 
most exultant and happy man in this wide world. 

Most of the English and many of the French 
philosophers were very unwilling to believe that an 
obscure American, in what they deemed the savage 
and uncultivated wilds of the New World, was out- 
stripping them in philosophical research. They 
were unwilling to acknowledge the reality of his ex- 
periments ; but in France, where an American would 
receive more impartial treatment, three of the most 
eminent philosophers. Count de Bufifon, M. Dalibard 
and M. de Lor, at different places, raised the appara- 
tus Franklin had recommended to draw electricity 
from the clouds. Their success was unmistakable ; 
the results of these experiments were proclaimed 
throughout Europe. 

Franklin had now obtained renown. No one 
could deny that he merited a high position among 
the most eminent philosophers. The experiments 
he had suggested were tried by scientists in the phil- 
osophical circles of every country in Europe. 

Both Yale and Harvard, in this country, conferred 
upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, 
and the Royal Society, in Europe, by a unanimous 
vote, elected him a member, remitting the usual in- 
itiation fee of five guineas, and the annual charge of 



THE TRADESMAN A PHxLOSOPHER. 163 

two and a half guineas. The next year this Society 
conferred upon him the Copley medal. 

For seven years Franklin continued to devote 
himself almost exclusively to this science, and he 
became, without doubt, the most accomplished elec- 
trician in the world. At the same time his mind 
was ever active in devising new schemes for the 
welfare of humanity. The most trivial events would 
often suggest to him measures conducive to the 
most beneficial results. It is said that Franklin saw 
one day in a ditch the fragments of a basket of yel- 
low willow, in which some foreign commodity had 
been imported to this country. One of the twigs 
had sprouted. He planted it ; and it became the 
parent of all the yellow willows in our country. 

Franklin was best loved where he was best 
known. And this was right ; for he was ever con 
ferring deeds of kindness upon his neighbors. His 
leligious views excited sorrow among his Christian 
friends. Others, composing perhaps a majority, 
cared nothing about what he believed. In conver- 
sation he ever frankly avowed himself a deist, though 
generally he made no attempt to convert others to 
his views. It is not improbable that he was in some 
degree influenced by the beneficial effect produced 
upon the popular mind by the preaching of his friend 
Mr. Whitefield. 



164 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The writer was once, in Paris, conversing with one 
of the most illustrious of the French philosophers. 
He said to the philosopher, " I am much interested 
to ascertain the views of gentlemen of your intel- 
lectual position respecting the christian religion.** 
He with perfect frankness rephed, " I think that 
there are no men of high culture in France, with a 
few exceptions, who believe in the divine origin of 
Christianity. But there is no philanthropist who 
will say so. We have been taught, by the horrors 
of the French Revolution, that the masses of the 
people can only be restrained from violence by the 
superstitious restraints which Christianity presents. 
We therefore think that every man, who is a gentle- 
man, will do what he can to sustain the church and 
the clergy. Men of culture and refinement, are 
governed by principles of honor, and they do not 
need the superstitious motives of Christianity to in- 
fluence them." 

I may remark, in passing, that this gentlemanly 
philosopher had abandoned his own wife, and was 
then living with the wife of another man. It is not 
improbable that Franklin, as he looked upon the 
tumultuous and passion-tossed young men of Phila- 
delphia, did not deem it expedient to say to them, 

** The Bible is a fable The Sabbath is no more 
sacred than any other d\y. The church is merely a 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. 165 

human club without any divine authority. Marriage 
is an institution which is not founded upon any de- 
cree which God has issued, but one of the expediency 
of which each individual must judge for himself. 
The Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, 
are mere human contrivances. The preaching of 
the Gospel had better be laid aside for literary and 
scientific disquisitions." 

With the eye of a benevolent philosopher, Frank- 
lin, as we have seen, had watched the effect of the 
preaching of Mr. Whitefield, and had candidly ac- 
knowledged its power in reforming society. It is 
improbable that, in his heart, he felt that the preach- 
ing of pure deism could ever secure such results. In 
1753 he wrote to Mr. Whitefield, in reply to a com- 
munication from him upon the Christian faith : 

" The faith you mention certainly has its use in 
the world. I do not desire to see it diminished, nor 
would I endeavor to lessen it in any man." 

Franklin had resolved to decline all office, that 
he might devote himself to his studies. But his rep- 
utation for wisdom was such, that he found it very 
difficult to persevere in this plan. Menaces of war 
were continually arising. The majority of the mem- 
bers, In the Assembly, were Quakers. It was a small 
body consisting of but forty delegates. The Qua- 
kers opposed every measure for public defence. 



1 66 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin, as we have mentioned, became a Justice 
of the Peace. Soon after he was an Alderman, and 
then he took his seat in the General Assembly. 

" I was a bad speaker," he writes, " never elo 
quent ; subject to much hesitation in the choice of 
words ; and yet I generally carried my point." 

He adds, in language which every young man 
should treasure up in his memory, ** I retained the 
habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffi- 
dence ; never using, when I advanced anything that 
might possibly be disputed, the words, certainly^ 
undoubtedly^ or any others that give the air of posi- 
tiveness to an opinion ; but rather, I conceive^ or 
apprehend a thing to be so and so. // appears to 
mey or, / should not think it so for such and such rea- 
sons ^ or, / imagine it to be so^ or, It is so if I am not 
mistaken. This habit, I believe, has been of great 
advantage to me when I have had occasion to incul- 
cate my opinions ; and to persuade men into meas- 
ures that I have been from time to time proposing." 

When Franklin assumed the charge of the post- 
office, the department was in a feeble and peculiar 
condition. As late as the year 1757, the mail-bag in 
Virginia was passed from planter to planter. Each 
one was required to forward it promptly, under 
the penalty of forfeiting a hogohea-'J of tobacco. 
Every man took, from the bag, wli/*' belonged to 



THE TRADESMAN A PHILOSOPHER. 167 

his family, and sent on the rest. The line of post- 
offices then extended from Boston, Mass., to Charles- 
ton, S. C. It was twenty years after this, before 
any governmental mail penetrated the interior. 

In the year 1753, Franklin visited every post- 
office excepting that of Charleston. His wisdom 
introduced reforms, some of which have continued 
to the present day. A newspaper was charged nine 
pence a year, for a distance of fifty miles, and eigh- 
teen pence for one hundred miles or more. In the 
large towns a penny post was established, and all 
letters left remaining in the office were advertised. 

A mail was conveyed from Philadelphia to New 
York once a week in summer, and once in two weeks 
in winter. Franklin started a mail to leave each of 
these cities three times a week in summer, and twice 
in winter. It generally required six weeks to obtain 
an answer from a letter sent to Boston. Most of 
the roads, into the interior, consisted of narrow pas- 
sages, cut through the forest, called Bridle Paths, 
because the pack horses were led through them, in 
single file by the bridle. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Rising Storms of War, 

Aristocracy— Anecdote — Conflicting laws of Nations — Franklin'i 
scheme of colonization — Proposal of the British Court — The 
foresight of Franklin — Braddock's campaign — Remonstrances of 
Franklin and Washington — Franklin's interviews with Braddock 
— Franklin's efficiency — Confidence of Braddock — The conflict 
with the Proprietaries — The non-resistant Quakers — Fate of 
the Moravian villages — The winter campaign — The camp of 
Gaudenhutton — Anecdote — Renewal of the strife with the Pro- 
prietaries — Franklin recalled to assist the Assembly — Destruc- 
tion of the Fort — Claim of the Proprietaries — The great con- 
troversy. 

With increasing wealth the spirit of aristo- 
cratic exclusiveness gained strength in the higher 
circles of Philadelphia. Some of the more opulent 
families planned for a series of dancing entertain- 
ments during the winter. It was proposed among 
other rules that no mechanic, or mechanic's wife or 
daughter, should be invited. The rules were shown 
to Franklin. He glanced his eye over them and 
pithily remarked, 

** Why these rules would exclude God Al 
mighty ! " 

" How so?" inquired the manager. 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 169 

" Because," Franklin replied, " the Almighty, as 
all know, is the greatest mechanic in the universe. 
In six days he made all things." The obnoxious 
article was stricken out. 

The following incident, narrated by Franklin, 
illustrates a very important principle in political 
economy, which those are apt to ignore, who de- 
nounce all the elegancies and luxuries of life. 

Mrs. Franklin received some small favor from 
the captain of a little coaster, which ran between 
Cape May and Philadelphia. He declined to re- 
ceive any remuneration for his trifling services. 
Mrs. Franklin, learning that he had a pretty daugh- 
ter, sent her a new-fashioned Philadelphia cap or 
bonnet. Three years after, the captain called again 
at the house of Mr. Franklin. A very plain but 
intelligent farmer accompanied him. The captain 
expressed his thanks to Mrs. Franklin for the gift 
she had sent his daughter, and rather discourteously 
added, 

" But it proved a dear cap to our congregation. 
When my daughter appeared with it at meeting, it 
•was so much admired that all the girls resolved to 
get such caps from Philadelphia. And my wife and 
I computed that the whole could not have cost less 
than a hundred pounds." 

The farmer, with far higher intelligence said. 



I/O BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" This IS true ; but you do not tell the whole story. 
I think the cap was nevertheless an advantage to us. 
It was the first thing that put our girls upon knit- 
ting worsted mittens, for sale at Philadelphia, that 
they might have wherewithal to buy caps and rib- 
bons there. And you know that that industry has 
continued and is likely to continue and increase, to 
a much greater value, and answer better purposes.'* 

" Thus by a profitable exchange, the industrious 
girls at Cape May had pretty bonnets, and the girls 
at Philadelphia had warm mittens." 

For seventy-five years it had been the constant 
design of the British government to drive the 
French from North America. England claimed the 
whole country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
because her ships had first sailed along the Atlantic 
coast. It was one of the recognized laws of nations 
that a newly discovered region belonged to the na- 
tion who had first raised upon it its flag. 

France, admitting the claim of England to the 
Atlantic coast, asserted her right to the great val- 
leys of the interior, those of the Ohio and the Mis- 
sissippi, because her boatmen had first discovered 
those magnificent rivers, had explored them 
throughout, and had established upon them her 
trading and military posts. It was a recognized law 
of nations, that the power which discovered, ex- 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. I7I 

plored, and took possession of a new river, was the 
rightful possessor of the valley which that river 
watered. Thus the conflict of claims originated. 

To add to the intensity of the insane strife, which 
caused an amount of blood and misery which no 
tongue can tell, religious bitterness was aroused, and 
the French Roman Catholic was arrayed against the 
British Protestant. 

Three wars, bloody and woful, had already rav- 
aged this continent. We have before alluded to 
the menace of a new war in the year 1754, and to 
Franklin's mission to Albany to enlist the chiefs of 
the Six Nations to become allies of the English. 
We have also alluded to the plan, which Franklin 
drew up on this journey, for the union of the colo- 
nies, and which was rejected. The wisdom of this 
plan was, however, subsequently developed by the 
fact that it was remarkably like that by which event- 
ually the colonies were bound together as a nation. 

Assuming that the English were right in their 
claim for the whole continent, Franklin urged the 
eminently wise measure of establishing strong colo- 
nies, in villages of a hundred families each, on the 
luxuriant banks of the western rivers. But the 
haughty British government would receive no in- 
structions from American provincials. 

Governor Shirley, of Boston, showed Mr. Frank- 



1/2 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

lin a plan, drawn up in England, for conducting 
the war. It developed consummate ignorance 
of the difficulties of carrying on war in the pathless 
wilderness ; and also a great disregard of the politi- 
cal rights of the American citizens. According to 
this document, the British court was to originate 
and execute all the measures for the conduct of the 
war ; and the British Parliament was to assess what- 
ever tax it deemed expedient upon the American 
people to defray the expenses. The Americans 
were to have no representation in Parliament, and 
no voice whatever in deciding upon the sum which 
they were to pay. 

Franklin examined the document carefully, and 
returned it with his written objections. In this 
remarkable paper, he anticipated the arguments 
which our most distinguished statesmen and logi- 
cians urged against the Stamp Act — against Taxa- 
tion without Representation. A brief extract from 
this important paper, will give the reader some idea 
of its character : 

" The colonists are Englishmen. The accident 
of living in a colony deprives them of no right se- 
cured by Magna Charta. The people in the colo- 
nies, who are to feel the immediate mischiefs of 
invasion and conquest by an enemy in the loss of 
their estates, lives and liberties, are likely to be bet- 



THE RISING STORMS 3F WAR. 1/3 

ter judges of the quantity of forces necessary to be 
raised and maintained, and supported, and of their 
own ability to bear the expense, than the Parlia- 
ment of England, at so great a distance. Compel- 
ling the colonists to pay money without their con- 
sent, would be rather like raising contributions in 
an enemy's country, than taxing of Englishmen for 
their own public benefit. It would be treating them 
as a conquered people, and not as true British 
subjects." 

At length the brave, but self-conceited and 
haughty General Braddock came with his army of 
British Regulars. Frenchmen, Indians, and Ameri- 
cans, he alike regarded with contempt. His troops 
were rendezvoused at Fredericktown, in Maryland. 
A bridle path led through the wilderness to this 
place, from Philadelphia, a distance of a hundred 
and twenty miles. 

Intelligent American gentlemen were much 
alarmed, by the reckless and perilous measures which 
the ignorant British general declared his intention 
to pursue. He became very angry with Pennsylva- 
nians, because they were so unwilling to fall in with 
his plans. It was said that, in his anger, he mani- 
fested more desire to ravage Pennsylvania than to 
defeat the French. 

The Assembly at Philadelphia appointed a com- 



1/4 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

mission, consisting of Benjamin Franklin and his son, 
a resolute, insubordinate man of thirty years, and of 
the Governors of New York and Massachusetts, to 
visit the arrogant British officer, and to endeavor, in 
some way, to influence him to wiser measures. It 
was the middle of April, a beautiful season in that 
climate, of swelling buds, and opening leaves. 

Each of the four gentlemen was attended by ser- 
vants, as was customary in those days. They were 
all finely mounted. Joyfully they rode along, seek- 
ing entertainment each night at the residence of 
some planter. A courier was always sent forward 
to announce their coming, and the planter, accom- 
panied by one or two of his servants, would gene- 
rally ride forward a few miles to meet them, and 
escort them to his hospitable home. 

Franklin was received by Gen. Braddock with 
the condescension with which, in that day, English 
gentlemen were ever accustomed to regard Amer- 
icans of whatever name or note. The little army, 
which was to march upon Fort Duquesne, was to 
traverse the dreary and pathless ridges and ravines of 
the Alleghany mountains, and force their way through 
a tangled wilderness, for a distance of several hundred 
miles. During all this march they were hourly ex- 
posed to be attacked by an overpowering force of 
French and Indians. The French could easily de- 



THE RISING STORMS CF WAR. I75 

Bcend to the Ohio, in their boats from Canada, and 
nearly all the Indians of this vast interior, were in 
alliance with them. 

Braddock insisted upon encumbering his march 
with heavily laden wagons, which were to penetrate 
savage regions through which he must, every mile, 
construct his road. There was a young American in 
the camp by the name of George Washington. He 
was a man of the highest rank, and of commanding 
influence, having obtained much experience in In- 
dian warfare. Modestly, but warmly, he remon- 
strated against this folly. He not only feared, but 
was fully assured that such a measure would lead to 
the inevitable destruction of the army. He urged 
that pack horses only should be employed, and as 
few of them as possible ; and that thus they should 
hurry along as rapidly and in as compact a mass as 
they could. 

But Braddock was inexorable. He demanded 
his two hundred and fifty wagons, and a large train 
of pack horses, to be laden with sumptuous provisions 
for his officers. The farmers of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia were reluctant to expose the few wagons and 
teams they had, to such inevitable destruction. 
Neither had they any confidence that the British 
Government would ever remunerate them in case of 
their loss. 



176 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Four-wheeled vehicles' were very scarce in the 
colonies. There were many people who had never 
seen one. The general, after exhausting all his 
efforts, could obtain but twenty-four. One day as 
he was giving vent to his indignation, Franklin sug- 
gested that it would probably be much more easy to 
obtain wagons in the more densely settled parts of 
Pennsylvania. Braddock immediately urged him to 
undertake the enterprise. Unwisely, we think, he 
consented. With his son he hastened to Pennsyl- 
vania, and selected Lancaster, York, and Carlisle as 
his centres of operation. 

Whatever Franklin undertook, he was pretty 
sure to accomplish. In twenty days he obtained 
one hundred and fifty four-horse wagons, and two 
hundred and fifty-nine pack-horses. He did not 
accomplish this feat however, until he had exhausted 
all the money which Braddock had furnished him, 
had spent over a thousand dollars of his own money, 
and had given bonds for the safe return of horses 
and wagons, whose money value was estimated at 
one hundred thousand dollars. 

Braddock was lavish in his compliments. Frank- 
lin dined with him daily. The idea seemed never to 
have entered Braddock's mind that British Regulars, 
under his command, could ever be seriously annoyed 
by bands ot French and Indians. He said one day 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 1 77 

•* After taking Fort Duquesne, I shall go to Ni- 
agara. Having taken that, if the season will permit, 
I shall proceed to Fort Frontenac. Fort Duquesne 
can hardly detain me more than three or four days.'* 

Franklin, -w ho was well aware that Braddock was 
entering upon a far more formidable campaign than 
he anticipated, ventured very modestly to suggest, 

" To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before Du- 
quesne with the fine troops so well provided with 
artillery, the fort, though completely fortified, and 
assisted with a very strong garrison, can probably 
make but a short resistance. The only danger I 
apprehend of obstruction to your march, is of ambus- 
cades of the Indians, who, by constant practice, are 
dexterous in laying and executing them. And the 
slender line, near four miles long, which your army 
must make, may expose it to be attacked by sur- 
prise in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into sev- 
eral pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come 
up in time to support each other." 

Braddock smiled derisively, at this ignorance of 
a benighted American. ** These savages may in- 
deed," he said, *'be a formidable enemy to your raw 
American militia. But upon the king's regular and 
disciplined troops, it is impossible that they should 
make any impression." 

Colonel Washington regarded the wagons, and 
8* 



1^8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the long array of pack-horses, as so many nui 
sances, arresting the rapidity of their march, and in- 
viting attacks which it would be impossible to repel. 
At length the army was in motion. The progress 
was very slow. Franklin was continually forward- 
ing supplies ; and even advanced between six and 
seven thousand dollars, from his own purse, to expe- 
dite purchases. A part of this he never received 
back. 

The attack upon Braddock's army, and its terri- 
ble defeat soon came. A minute account of the 
conflict is given in the Life of George Washington, 
one of the volumes of this series. The teamsters 
cut the traces of their horses, mounted the swiftest, 
and, in the frenzy of their panic, rushed for home. 
The other horses and the wagons, with their abound- 
ing supplies, were left to magnify the triumph of the 
exultant Indians. Disastrous as was the campaign, 
Franklin obtained much credit for the efficient servi- 
ces he had rendered. 

War, with all its horrors, had now penetrated 
the beautiful region of Pennsylvania, which had 
enjoyed eighty years of peace, through the Christian 
philanthropy of William Penn. Nearly all of the 
Indians, beyond the mountains, were allies of the 
French. The news of Braddock's defeat reached 
Philadelphia about the middle of July, 1755. Im- 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 1 79 

mediately a violent conflict arose between the royal- 
ist governor Morris, and the Colonial Assembly. 
The Legislative body voted liberal taxes for the 
public defence. But very justly it was enacted that 
these taxes should be assessed impartially upon all 
estates alike, upon those of the wealthy Proprie- 
taries, as well as upon the few hundred acres which 
were owned by the humble farmers. The Proprie- 
taries, consisting of two of the sons of William Penn 
revolted against this. The Governor, appointed' by 
them, as their agent of course, united with them in 
opposition. For many weeks the conflict between 
the Assembly and the Governor as agent of the Pro- 
prietaries, raged fiercely. Under these circumstan- 
ces no military supplies could be voted, and the 
peril of the community was very great. 

Franklin warmly espoused and eloquently advo- 
cated the claim of the Assembly. During the 
months of July and August, the Indians, satiated 
with the vast plunder of Braddock's camp, made no 
attempt to cross the Alleghanies, in predatory excur- 
sions against the more settled portions of Pennsyl- 
vania. But September and October ushered in 
scenes of horror and carnage, too awful to be de- 
picted. Villages were laid in ashes, cottages were 
burned, families tomahawked and scalped, women 
and children carried into captivity, and many poor 



I80 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

creatures perishea at the stake, in the endurance of 
all the tortures which savage ingenuity could devise. 

And still the Quakers, adhering to their principle 
of non-resistance, refused to contribute any money, 
or in any way to unite in any military organization 
for self-defence. But in candor it must be admitted, 
that had the principles of the Quakers been adopted 
by the British court, this whole disastrous war 
might have been avoided. It was a war of invasion 
commenced by the English. They were determined, 
by force of arms, to drive the French out of the 
magnificent valleys beyond the mountains. In the 
conflict which ensued, both parties enlisted all the 
savages they could, as allies. Will not England at 
the judgment be held responsible for this war and 
its woes ? 

To rouse the Quakers to a sense of shame, the 
bodies of a whole murdered family, mutilated and 
goryy were brought to Philadelphia and paraded 
through all its streets, in an open wagon. In No- 
vember, as the Indians, often led by French officers, 
were sweeping the frontier in all directions, killing, 
burning, destroying, the antagonistic parties in the 
Assembly, for a time laid aside their quarrels, and 
with the exception of the Quakers, adopted vigorous 
military measures. The Quakers were generally the 
most opulent people in the State. It is not stiange 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. l8l 

that the common people should be reluctant to vol- 
unteer to defend the property of the Quakers, since 
they refused either to shoulder a musket, or to con- 
tribute a dollar. 

The pen of Franklin rendered wonderful service 
in this crisis. With his accustomed toleration, he 
could make allowance for the frailties of conscience- 
bound men. He wrote a very witty pamphlet which 
was very widely read, and produced a powerful im- 
pression. Its character may be inferred from the 
following brief quotation : 

** * For my part,' says A, * I am no coward ; but 
hang me if I fight to save the Quakers.* 

" * That is to say,* B. replied, ' you will not pump 
the sinking ship, because it will save the rats as well 
as yourselves.' " 

The dialogue ends with the following admirable 
words : 

" O ! my friends, the glory of serving and saving 
others is superior to the advantage of being served 
and secured. Let us resolutely and generously 
unite in our country's cause, in which to die is the 
sweetest of all deaths ; and may the God of armies 
bless our honest endeavors." 

The colonists of Pennsylvania now generally 
rushed to arms. There were, on the frontiers, seve- 
ral flourishing Moravian villages. They were occu- 



l82 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

pied by a peculiarly industrious and religious peo- 
ple. The traveller through their quiet streets 
heard, morning and evening, the voice of prayer 
ascending from many firesides, and the melody of 
Christian hymns. Guadenhutton, perhaps the most 
flourishing of them, was attacked by the Indians, 
burned, and the inhabitants all massacred or carried 
into captivity. Terrible was the panic in the other 
villages. They were liable at any day, to experience 
the same fate. 

Under these circumstances the Governor raised 
five hundred and forty volunteers, and placed them 
under the command of Franklin, with the title of 
General. He was to lead them, as rapidly as possi- 
ble, to Northampton county, for the protection of 
these people. His son, William, was his aid-de- 
camp. He proved an efficient and valiant soldier. 

It was the middle of December when this heroic 
little band commenced its march. Snow whitened 
the hills. Wintry gales swept the bleak plains, and 
moaned through the forests. The roads were 
almost impassable. Fierce storms often entirely 
arrested their march. The wilderness was very 
thinly inhabited. It required the toil of a month, 
for Franklin to force his way through these many 
obstructions to the base of his operations, though 
it was distant not more thar ninety miles. 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 1 83 

The troops moved very cautiously to guard 
against ambush. The philosopher, Franklin, though 
he had never received a military education, and was 
quite inexperienced in military afifairs, was the last 
man to be drawn into such a net as that in which 
the army of Braddock was destroyed. 

Franklin, as a philosopher, could appreciate the 
powerful influence of religious motives upon the 
mind. Rev. Mr. Beatty was his chaplain, whose 
worth of character Franklin appreciated. Before 
commencing their march, all the troops were assem- 
bled for a religious service. After an earnest exhor- 
tation to fidelity and duty, a fervent prayer was 
offered. 

The march was conducted with great regularity, 
First, scouts advanced in a semi-circular line, rang- 
ing the woods. Then came the advanced guard, at 
a few hundred paces behind. The centre followed, 
with all the wagons and baggage. Then came the 
rear guard, with scouts on each flank, and spies on 
every hill. 

Upon reaching Guadenhutton, an awful scene of 
desolation and carnage met the eye. The once 
happy village presented now but a revolting expanse 
of blackened ruins. The mangled bodies of the 
dead strewed the ground, mutilated alike by the 
savages and the howling wolves. Franklin ordered 



1 84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



• 



huts immediately to be reared to protect his troops 
from the inclemency of the weather. No man knew 
better than he, how to make them comfortable and 
cheerful with the least expense. 

A fort was promptly constructed, which he called 
Fort Allen, and which could easily repel any attack 
the Indians might make, unless they approached 
with formidable French artillery. There were many 
indications that the Indians, in large numbers, were 
hovering around, watching all their movements. 
But the sagacity of Franklin baffled them. They 
kept concealed without any attack. The savages 
were very cautious men ; they would seldom engage 
in a battle, unless they were sure of victory. 

A trifling incident occurred at this time, worthy 
of record as illustrative of the shrewdness of General 
Fraivklin. 

The chaplain complained that the men were 
remiss in attending prayers. Franklin suggested 
that though it might not be exactly consistent with 
the dignity of the chaplain to become himself the 
steward of the rum, still, if he would order it to be 
distributed immediately after prayers, he would 
probably have all the men gathering around him. 

" He liked the thought," Franklin wrote, " under 
took the task, and with the help of a few hands to 
measure out the liquor, executed it to satisfaction 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 18^ 

Never were prayers more generally and more punc- 
tually attended. So that I think this method pre- 
ferable to the punishment inflicted by some military 
laws for non-attendance on divine worship." 

Bitter quarrels were renewed in the Assembly. 
The presence of Franklin was indispensable to 
allay the strife. Governor Morris wrote entreating 
him immediately to return to Philadelphia. It so 
happened at this time, that Col. Clapham, a New 
England soldier of experience and high repute, 
visited the camp at Guadenhutton. Franklin placed 
him in command, and warmly commending him ta 
the confidence of the troops, hurried home. He 
reached Philadelphia on the loth of February, 1756,. 
after two months' service in the field. Universal ap- 
plause greeted him. Several military companies, in 
Philadelphia, united in a regiment of about twelve 
hundred men. Franklin was promptly elected their 
colonel, which office he accepted. 

In tracing the disasters of war, it is interesting to 
observe how many of those disasters are owing to 
unpardonable folly. Some months after Franklin's 
departure, on a cold, bleak day in November, a large 
part of the garrison, unmindful of danger, were skat- 
ing, like school-boys on the Lehigh river. The vigi- 
lant Indians saw their opportunity. Like howling 
wolves they made a rush upon the fort, entered its 



1 86 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

Open gates, and killed or captured all its inmates 
The skaters fled into the woods. They were pur- 
sued. Some were killed or captured. Some perished 
miserably of cold and starvation. Probably a few 
escaped. The triumphant savages, having plundered 
the fort and the dwellings of all their contents, aj>- 
plied the torch, and again Guadenhutton was reduced 
to a pile of ashes. 

The controversy which arose between the Gover- 
nor and the Assembly became acrimonious in the 
extreme. The principles there contended for, in- 
volved the very existence of anything like American 
liberty. For fifteeen years the pen and voice of 
Franklin were influential in this controversy. He 
probably did more than any other man to prepare 
the colonists to resist the despotism of the British 
court, and to proclaim their independence. 

On the 5th of January, 168 1, King Charles the 
Second had conferred upon William Penn twenty- 
six million acres of the " best land in the universe.** 
This land was in the New World, and received the 
name of Pennsylvania. In return for this grant, 
Penn agreed to pay annually, at Windsor Castle, two 
beaver skins, and one-fifth of the gold and silver 
which the province might yield. He also promised 
to govern the province in conformity with the laws 
of England, 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 1 87 

He could treat with the savages, appoint ordi- 
nary magistrates, and pardon petty crimes. But he 
could lay no tax, and impose no law without consent 
of the freemen of the province, represented in the 
Assembly. 

Of this whole wide realm, Penn was the absolute 
proprietor. He refused to sell a single acre, abso- 
solutely, but in all the sales reserved for himself 
what may be called a ground-rent. Immense tracts 
were sold at forty shillings, about ten dollars, for one 
hundred acres, reserving a rent of one shilling for 
each hundred acres. He also reserved, entirely to 
himself, various portions of the territory which 
promised to become the site of important cities and 
villages. All these rights descended to the heirs of 
William Penn. 

Seventy-four years passed away, when the estate 
thus founded, was estimated to be worth ten mil- 
lions sterling, and popular belief affirmed that it 
produced a revenue of one hundred thousand 
pounds. ' 

Penn, when he died, bequeathed the province to 
his three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard. To John 
he gave a double part, or one-half of Pennsylvania. 
John died and left his half to Thomas, who thus be- 
came proprietor of three-fourths of the province, 
while Richard held one-fourth. Thus there were 



1 88 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

but two proprietors, Thomas and Richard Penn 
They were both weak men ; resided in England, 
were thoroughly imbued with Tory principles, and, 
in the consciousness of their vast estates, assumed 
to be lords and princes. 

They ruled their province by a deputy-governor. 
His position was indeed no sinecure. The two pro- 
prietaries, who appointed him, could at any time 
deprive him of office. The Assembly could refuse 
to vote his salary, and if he displeased the king of 
England, he might lose, not only his office, but his 
head. 

The controversy which had arisen, in conse- 
quence of these involvements between the proprie- 
taries and the people, engrossed universal attention. 
During the four years between 1754 and 1758, the 
ravaged colony of Pennsylvania had raised the sum 
-of two hundred and eighteen thousand pounds 
sterling, (over a million of dollars,) for defending its 
borders. And still the two lordly proprietaries 
demanded that their vast possessions should be 
entirely exempt from taxation. 

To an earnest remonstrance of the Assembly, 
they returned an insulting answer, in which they 
said, 

" We are no more bound to pay taxes than any 
other chief governor of the King's colonies. Your 



THE RISING STORMS OF WAR. 1 89 

agitation of this matter is a new trick to secure 
your re-election. We advise you to show us the 
respect due to the rank which the crown has been 
pleased to bestow upon us. The people of Pennsyl- 
vania, in ordinary times, are so lightly taxed, that they 
hardly know that they are taxed. What fools you 
are to be agitating this dangerous topic of American 
taxation. It is beneath the dignity of the Assem- 
bly to make trouble about such small sums of 
money. We do not deny that you have been at 
some expense in pacifying the Indians, but that is 
no affair of ours. We already give the province a 
larger sum per annum, than our share of the taxes 
would amount to. One of us, for example, sent 
over four hundred pounds' worth of cannon, for the 
defence of our city of Philadelphia." 

Such was their answer. It was conveyed in six- 
teen sentences which were numbered and which 
were very similar to the ones we have given. The 
communication excited great displeasure. It was 
considered alike false and insolent. Even the tran- 
quil mind of Franklin was fired with indignation. 
He replied to the document with a power of elo- 
quence and logic which carried the convictions of 
nearly all the colonists. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Franklin s Mission to England, 

New marks Df respect — Lord Loudoun — Gov. Denny and Franklin- 
Visit the Indians — Franklin commissioner to England — Hii 
constant good nature — Loudoun's delays — Wise action of an 
English captain — The voyagers land at Falmouth — Journey to 
London — Franklin's style of living in London — His electrical 
experiments — He teaches the Cambridge professor — Complimen- 
tary action of St. Andrews — Gov. Denny displaced, and dark 
clouds arising — Franklin's successful diplomacy — His son ap)- 
pointed Governor of New Jersey — Great opposition — The home- 
ward voyage — Savage horrors — Retaliating cruelties — Frank- 
lin's efforts in behalf of the Moravian Indians. 

The general impression, produced throughout 
the colonies, by the controversy with the proprieta- 
ries, was that they were very weak men. Indeed it 
does not appear that they were much regarded even 
in London. A gentleman, writing from that city, 
said, '* They are hardly to be found in the herd of 
gentry ; not in court, not in office, not in par- 
liament." 

In March, Franklin left his home for a post-office 
tour. Some forty of the officers of his regiment, 
well mounted, and in rich uniform, without Frank- 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. 19I 

lin's knowledge, came to his door, to escort him out 
of the village. Franklin says, 

" I had not previously been made acquainted 
with their project, or I should have prevented it, 
being naturally averse to the assuming of state on 
any occasion." 

The proprietaries in London heard an account 
of this affair. They were very much displeased, 
saying they had never been thus honored, and that 
princes of the blood alone were entitled to such dis- 
tinction. The war was still raging. Large bodies 
of troops were crossing the ocean to be united with 
the colonial forces. 

Lord Loudoun was appointed by the court com- 
mander-in-chief for America. He was an exceed- 
ingly weak and inefficient man ; scarcely a soldier in 
the ranks could be found more incompetent for the 
situation. Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, worn 
out with his unavailing conflicts with the Assembly, 
was withdrawn, and the proprietaries sent out Cap- 
tain William Denny as their obsequious servant in 
his stead. The Philadelphians, hoping to conciliate 
him, received him cordially, and with a public enter- 
tainment. William Franklin wrote ; 

" Change of devils, according to the Scotch 
proverb, is blithesome." 

At the close of the feast, when most of the party 



ig2 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

were making themselves merry over their wine, 
Governor Denny took Franklin aside into an adjoin- 
ing room, and endeavored, by the most abounding 
flattery, and by the bribe of rich promises, to induce 
him to espouse the cause of the proprietaries. But 
he soon learned that Franklin could not be influ- 
enced by any of his bribes. 

There was but a brief lull in the storm. Gov- 
ernor Denny had no power of his own. He could 
only obey the peremptory instructions he had 
received. These instructions were irreconcilably 
hostile to the resolves of the Assembly. Franklin 
was the all-powerful leader of the popular party. 
There was something in his imperturbable good 
nature which it is difficult to explain. No scenes of 
woe seemed to depress his cheerful spirits. No 
\ atrocities of oppression could excite his indignation. 
He could thrust his keen dagger points into the 
vitals of his antagonist, with a smile upon his face 
and jokes upon his lips which would convulse both 
friend and foe with laughter. He was the most 
unrelenting antagonist of Governor Denny in the 
Assembly, and yet he was the only man who 
remained on good terms with the governor, visiting 
him, and dining with him. 

Governor Denny was a gentleman, and well edu- 
cated, and few men could appear to better advan- 



FRANKLIN'S MISSION TO ENGLAND. I93 

tage in the saloons of fashion. But he was trammeled 
beyond all independent action, by the instructions 
he had received from the proprietaries. He was 
right in heart, was in sympathy with Franklin, and 
with reluctance endeavored to enforce the arbitrary 
measures with which he was entrusted. 

Franklin was one of the most companionable ot 
men. His wonderful powers of conversation, his 
sweetness of temper, and his entire ignoring of all 
aristocratic assumption, made him one of the most 
fascinating of guests in every circle. He charmed 
alike the rich and the poor, the learned and the 
ignorant. 

In November, 1756, he accompanied Governor] 
Denny to the frontier to confer with the chiefs of 
several Indian tribes. The savages, to say the least 
were as punctillious in the observance of the laws of 
honor, in securing the safety of the ambassadors on 
such an occasion, as were the English. 

The governor and the philosopher rode side by 
side on horseback, accompanied by only a few body 
servants. The governor, familiar with the clubs and 
the wits of England, entertained Franklin, in the 
highest degree, with the literary gossip of London, 
and probably excited in his mind an intense desire 
to visit those scenes, which he himself was so calcu- 
lated to enjoy and to embellish. On the journey he 

Q 



194 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

wrote the following comic letter to his Hrife. He 
had been disappointed in not receiving a line from 
her by a certain messenger. 

" I had a good mind not to write to you by this 
opportunity, but I never can be ill-natured enough 
even when there is most occasion. I think I won't 
tell you that we are well, and that we expect to re- 
turn about the middle of the week, nor will I send 
you a word of news ; that's poz. My duty to moth- 
er, love to the children, and to Miss Betsy and 
Gracie. I am your loving husband. 

" P. S. I have scratched out the loving words^ 
being writ in haste by mistake, when I forgot I was 
angry." 

Gov. Denny, unable to accomplish his purposes 
with the Assembly, resolved to make a final appeal 
to the king. The House promptly decided to imi- 
tate his example. Its Speaker, Mr. Norris, and 
/Benjamin Franklin, were appointed commissioners.) 
The Speaker declined the office, /and Franklin was 
left as sole commissioner.) He probably was not at 
all reluctant to be introduced to the statesmen, the 
philosophers, and the fashionable circles of the Old 
World. To defray his expenses the Assembly voted 
a sum of nearly eight thousand dollars. He had also 
wealth of his own. By correspondence, he was quite 
intimately acquainted with very many of the scieiv 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. I95 

tific men of England and France. It was very cer- 
tain that he would have the entree to any circle 
which he might wish to honor with his presence. 

It was at that time a very serious affair to cross 
the Atlantic. The ocean swarmed with pirates, pri- 
vateers, and men-of-war. On the fourth of April, 
1757, Franklin, with his son William, set out from 
Philadelphia. His cheerfulness of spirits did not 
forsake him as he left a home where he had been re- 
markably happy for twenty-six years. The family 
he left behind him consisted of his wife, his wife's 
aged mother, his daughter Sarah, a beautiful child 
of twelve years, one or two nieces, and an old nurse 
of the family. 

Franklin had written to the governor to ascertain 
the precise time when the packet would sail. The 
reply he received from him was, 

" I have given out that the ship is to sail on Sat- 
urday next. But I may let you know entre nous 
that if you are there by Monday morning you will 
be in time ; but do not delay any longer." 

Franklin was accompanied by a number of his 
friends as far as Trenton, where they spent a very 
joyful evening together. At one of the ferries on 
this road, they were delayed by obstructions so that 
they could not reach the Hudson River until noon 
of Monday. Franklin feared that the ship might saU 



196 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

without him ; but upon reaching the river he wa» 
reb'eved by seeing the vessel still in the stream. 
y Eleven weeks passed before Lord Loudoun would 
issue his permission for the ship to sail. Every day 
this most dilatory and incompetent of men an- 
nounced that the packet would sail to-morrow : And 
thus the weeks rolled on while Franklin was waiting, 
but we do not hear a single word of impatience or 
remonstrance from his lips. His philosophy taught 
him to be happy under all circumstances. With a 
smiling face he called upon Lord Loudoun and dined 
with him. He endeavored, but in vain, to obtain a 
settlement of his claims for supplies furnished to 
Braddock's army. 

He found much in the society of New York to 
entertain him. And more than all, and above all, he 
was doing everything that could be done for the accom- 
plishment of his mission. Why, then, should he worry ? 

** New York," he records, " was growing im- 
mensely rich by money brought into it from all quar- 
ters for the pay and subsistence of the troops." 

Franklin was remarkably gallant in his intercourse 
with ladies. He kept up quite a brisk correspond- 
ence with several of the most brilliant ladies of the 
day. No man could more prettily pay a compli- 
ment. To his lively and beautiful friend Miss Ray 
he wrote upon his departure, 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. I97 

" Present my best compliments to all that love 
me ; I should have said all that love you, but that 
would be giving you too much trouble." 

At length Lord Loudoun granted permission for 
the packet to drop down to the Lower Bay, where a 
large fleet of ninety vessels was assembled, fitted out 
for an attack upon the Fiench at Louisburg. Frank- 
lin and his friends went on board, as it was an- 
nounced that the vessel would certainly sail ** to- 
morrow." For six weeks longer the packet rode 
there at anchor. Franklin and his companions had 
for the third time consumed all the provisions they 
had laid in store for the voyage. Still we hear not 
a murmur from our imperturbable philosopher. 

At length the signal for sailing was given. The 
whole squadron put to sea, and the London packet, 
with all the rest, was swept forward toward Louis- 
burg. After a voyage of five days, a letter was 
placed in the hands of the captain, authorizing him 
to quit the fleet and steer for England. 

The days and nights of a long voyage came and 
went, when the packet at midnight in a gale of wind, 
and enveloped in fogs, was approaching Falmouth. 
A light-house, upon some rocks, had not been vis- 
ible. Suddenly the Hfting of the fog revealed the 
light-house and the craggy shore, over which the 
surf was fearfully breaking, at the distance of but a 



198 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

few rods. A captain of the Royal Navy, who 
chanced to be near the helmsman, sprang to the 
helm, called upon the sailors instantly to wear ship, 
and thus, at the risk of snapping every mast, saved 
the vessel and the crew from otherwise immediate 
and certain destruction. 

There was not, at that time, a single light-house 
on the North American coast. The event impressed 
the mind of Franklin deeply, and he resolved that 
upon his return, light-houses should be constructed. 

About nine o'clock the next morning the fog was 
slowly dispersed, and Falmouth, with its extended 
tower, its battlemented castles, and the forests of 
masts, was opened before the weary voyagers. It 
was Sunday morning and the bells were ringing fvf 
church. The vessel glided into the harbor, and joy- 
fully the passengers landed. Franklin writes, 

" The bell ringing for church, we went thither 
immediately, and with hearts full of gratitude re- 
turned sincere thanks to God for the mercies we had 
received.** 

We know not whether this devout act was sug- 
gested by Franklin, or whether he courteously fell 
in with the arrangement proposed, perhaps, by some 
religious companion. It is, however, certain that 
the sentence which next followed, in his letter, came 
gushing from his own mind. 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. I99 

" Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should, on 
this occasion, vow to build a chapel to some saint. 
But as I am not, if I were to vow at all it should be 
to build a light-housed 

It required a journey of two hundred and fifty 
miles to reach London. Franklin and his son posted 
to London, which was the most rapid mode of trav- 
eling in those days. They seem to have enjoyed the 
journey in the highest degree, through blooming, 
beautiful, highly cultivated England. Almost every 
thing in the charming landscape, appeared different 
from the rude settlements which were springing up 
amid the primeval forests of the New World. 

They visited the Cathedral at Salisbury, Stone- 
henge, Wilton Hall, the palatial mansion of the Earl 
of Pembroke. England was in her loveliest attire. 
Perhaps there could not then be found, upon this 
globe, a more lovely drive, than that through luxuri- 
ant Devonshire, and over the Hampshire Downs. 

Peter Collinson, a gentleman of great wealth, first 
received the travelers to his own hospitable mansion. 
Here Franklin was the object of marked attentions 
fiom the most distinguished scientists of England. 
Other gentlemen of high distinction honored them- 
selves by honoring him. Franklin visited the old 
printing-house, where he had worked forty years 
before, and treated the workmen with that beer. 



200 BENJAMIN FRANRLIN. 

which he had formerly so efficiently denounced in 

that same place. 

Soon he took lodgings with a very agreeable 
landlady, Mrs. Stevenson, No. 7, Craven street, 
Strand. He adopted, not an ostentatious, but a very 
genteel style of living. Both he and his son had 
brought with them each a body servant from Amer- 
ica. He set up a modest carriage, that he might 
worthily present himself at the doors of cabinet min- 
isters and members of parliament. 

The Proprietaries received him very coldly, 
almost insolently. They were haughty, reserved 
and totally uninfluenced by his arguments. He 
presented to them a brief memorandum, which very 
lucidly explained the views of the Assembly. It 
was as follows, 

I. "The Royal Charter gives the Assembly the 
power to make laws; the proprietary instructions 
deprive it of that power. 2. The Royal Charter 
confers on the Assembly the right to grant or with- 
hold supplies ; the instructions neutralize that right. 
3. The exemption of the proprietary estate from 
taxation is unjust. 4. The proprietaries are besought 
to consider these grievances seriously and redress 
them, that harmony may be restored.** 

The Penn brothers denounced this brief docu- 
ment, as vague, and disrespectful. It was evident 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. 201 

that Franklin had nothing to hope from them. He 
therefore directed all his energies to win to his side 
the Lords of Trade, and the members of the King's 
Council, to whom the final decision must be referred 
Twelve months elapsed, during which nothing was 
accomplished. But we hear not a murmur from his 
lips. He was not only contented but jovial. For 
two whole years he remained in England, apparently 
accomplishing nothing. These hours of leisure he 
devoted to the enjoyment of fashionable, intellectual 
and scientific society. No man could be a more 
welcome guest, in such elevated circles, for no man 
could enjoy more richly the charms of such society, 
or could contribute more liberally to its fascination. 
Electricity was still a very popular branch of nat- 
ural science. The brilliant experiments Franklin 
performed, lured many to his apartments. His 
machine was the largest which had been made, and 
would emit a spark nine inches in length. He had 
invented, or greatly improved, a new musical ma- 
chine of glass goblets, called the Armonica. 

It was listened to with much admiration, as it 
gave forth the sweetest tones. He played upon 
this instrument with great effect. 

The theatre was to Franklin an inexhaustible 
source of enjoyment. Garrick was then in the merid- 
iar. of his fame. He loved a good dinner, and could, 



202 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

without inconvenience, empty the second bottle o( 
claret. He wrote to a friend, 

" I find that I love company, chat, a laugh, a 
glass, and even a song as well as ever." 

At one time he took quite an extensive tour 
through England, visiting the University at Cam- 
bridge. He was received with the most flattering 
attentions from the chancellor and others of the 
prominent members of the faculty. Indeed every 
summer, during his stay in England, Franklin and 
his son spent a few weeks visiting the most attract- 
ive scenes of the beautiful island. Wherever he 
went, he left an impression behind him, which 
greatly increased his reputation. 

At Cambridge he visited the chemJcal laboratory, 
with the distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Dr. 
Hadley. Franklin suggested that temperature could 
be astonishingly reduced by evaporation. It was en- 
tirely a new idea to the Professor. They both with 
others repaired to Franklin's room. He had ether 
there, and a thermometer. To the astonishment of 
the Professor of Chemistry in Cambridge Univer- 
sity, the printer from Philadelphia showed him that 
by dipping the ball into the ether, and then blowing 
upon it with bellows to increase the evaporation, 
the mercury rapidly sunk twenty-five degrees below 
the freezing point. Ice was formed a quarter of an 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. 20$ 

inch thick, all around the ball. Thus, surrounded 
by the professors of one of the most distinguished 
universities of Europe, Benjamin Franklin was the 
teacher of the teachers. 

The father and the son visited the villages where 
their ancestors had lived. They sought out poor 
relations, and examined the tombstones. In the 
spring of 1769, they spent six weeks in Scotland. 
The University of St. Andrews conferred upon 
Franklin the honorary title of doctor, by which he 
has since been generally known. Other universities 
received him with great distinction. The corpora- 
tion of Edinburgh voted him the freedom of the 
city. All the saloons of fashion were not only open 
to receive him, but his presence, at every brilliant 
entertainment, was eagerly sought. The most dis- 
tinguished men of letters crowded around him. 
Hume, Robertson and Lord Kames became his inti- 
mate friends. 

These were honors sufficient to turn the head of / 
almost any man. But Franklin, who allowed no 
adversity to annoy him, could not be unduly elated 
by any prosperity or flattery. 

*• On the whole," writes Franklin, " I must say, 
that the time we spent there (Scotland) was six 
weeks of the densest happiness I have met with in 
any part of my life." 



204 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Still it is evident that occasionally he felt some 
slight yearnings for the joys of that home, over 
which his highly esteemed wife presided with such 
economy and skill. He wrote to her, 

" The regard and friendship I meet with from 
persons of worth, and the conversation of ingenuous 
men give me no small pleasure. But at this time 
of life, domestic comforts afford the most solid satis- 
faction : * and my uneasiness at being absent from 
my family and longing desire to be with them, make 
me often sigh, in the midst of cheerful company. 
An English gentleman, Mr. Strahan, wrote to Mrs. 
Franklin, urging her to come over to England and 
join her husband. In this letter he said, 

" I never saw a man who was, in every respect, 
so perfectly agreeable to me. Some are amiable in 
one view, some in another ; he in all." 

Three years thus passed away. It must not be 
supposed that the patriotic and faithful Franklin 
lost any opportunity whatever, to urge the all im- 
portant cause with which he was entrusted. His 
philosophy taught him that when he absolutely 
could not do any thing but wait, it was best to wait 
in the most agreeable and profitable manner. 

It was one of his strong desires, which he was 
compelled to abandon, to convert the proprietajry 

* Franklin was then 53 years of age. 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. 205 

province of Pennsylvania into a royal province. 
After Franklin left Philadelphia, the strife between 
the Assembly, and Governor Denny, as the repre- 
sentative of the proprietaries, became more violent 
than ever. The governor, worn out by the cease- 
less struggle, yielded in some points. This offended 
the proprietaries. Indignantly they dismissed him 
and appointed, in his place, Mr. James Hamilton, a 
more obsequious servant. 

By the royal charter it was provided that all 
laws, passed by the Assembly and signed by the 
governor, should be sent to the king, for his ap- 
proval. One of the bills which the governor, 
compelled as it were by the peril of public affairs, 
liad signed, allowed the Assembly to raise a sum of 
about five hundred thousand dollars, to be raised by 
a tax on all estates. This was a dangerous precedent. 
The aristocratic court of England repealed it, as an 
encroachment upon the rights of the privileged 
classes. It was a severe blow to the Assembly. 
The speaker wrote to Franklin : 

** We are among rocks and sands in a stormy 
season. It depends upon you to do every thing in 
your power in the present crisis. It is too late for 
us to give you any assistance." 

When Franklin received the crushing report 
against the Assembly he was just setting off foi a 



206 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

pleasant June excursion in Ireland. Immediately 
he unpacked his saddle-bags, and consecrated all his 
energies to avert the impending evils. He enlisted 
the sympathies of Lord Mansfield, and accomplished 
the astonishing feat in diplomacy, of inducing the 
British Lords of Commission to reverse their decis- 
ion, and to vote that the act of the Assembly 
should stand unrepealed. 

His business detained Franklin in London all 
summer. In the autumn he took a tour into the 
west of England and Wales. The gales of winter 
were now sweeping the Atlantic. No man in his 
senses would expose himself to a winter passage 
across the ocean, unless it was absolutely necessary. 
Indeed it would appear that Franklin was so happy 
in England, that he was not very impatient to see 
his home again. Though he had been absent three 
years from his wife and child, still two years more 
elapsed before he embarked for his native land. 

On the 25th of October George II. died. His 
grandson, a stupid, stubborn fanatically conscien- 
tious young man ascended the throne, with the title 
of George III. It would be difficult to compute the 
multitudes in Europe, Asia and America, whom his 
arrogance and ambition caused to perish on the bat- 
tle field. During these two years there was nothing 
of very special mcment which occurred in the life of 



FRANKLIN S MISSION TO ENGLAND. 20/ 

Franklin.. Able as he was as a statesman, science 
was the favorite object of his pursuit. He wrote 
several very strong pamphlets upon the political 
agitations of those tumultuous days, when all nations 
seem to have been roused to cutting each other's 
throats. He continued to occupy a prominent po- 
sition wherever he was, and devoted much time in 
collecting his thoughts upon a treatise to be desig- 
nated " The Art of Virtue." The treatise, however^ 
was never written. 

His influential and wealthy friend, Mr. Strahan,, 
was anxious to unite their two families by the mar- 
riage of his worthy and prosperous son to Mr. 
Franklin's beautiful daughter, Sarah. But the plan 
failed. Franklin also made an effort to marry his 
only son William, who, it will be remembered, was 
not born in wedlock, to a very lovely English lady, 
Miss Stephenson. But this young man, who, re- 
nouncing revealed religion, was a law unto himself, 
had already become a father without being a hus- 
band. Miss Stephenson had probably learned this 
fact and, greatly to the disappointment of Franklin, 
declined the alliance. The unhappy boy, the dis- 
honored son of a dishonored father, was born about 
the year 1760. Nothing is known of what became 
of the discarded mother. He received the name of 
William Temple Franklin. 



208 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Benjamin Franklin, as in duty bound, recognized 
him as his grandson, and received him warmly to his 
house and his heart. The reader will hereafter be- 
come better acquainted with the character and career 
of this young man. In the spring of 1762, Franklin 
commenced preparations for his return home. He 
•did not reach Philadelphia until late in the autumn. 
Upon his departure from England, the University 
■of Oxford conferred upon him the distinction of an 
honorary degree. 

William Franklin, though devoid of moral princi- 
ple, was a man of highly respectable abilities, of 
pleasing manners, and was an entertaining compan- 
ion. Lord Bute, who was in power, was the warm 
friend of Dr. Franklin. He therefore caused his son 
William to be appointed governor of New Jersey. 
It is positively asserted that Franklin did not solicit 
the favor. Indeed it was not a very desirable office. 
Its emoluments amounted to but about three thou- 
sand dollars a year. The governorship of the col- 
onies was generally conferred upon the needy sons 
of the British aristocracy. So many of them had 
developed characters weak and unworthy, that they 
were not regarded with much esteem. 

William Franklin was married on the 2d of Sep- 
tember, 1762, to Miss Elizabeth Downes. The an- 
nouncement of the marriage in London, and of his 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. 209 

appointment to the governorship of New Jersey 
created some sensation. Mr. John Penn, son of one 
of the proprietaries, and who was soon to become 
governor of Pennsylvania, affected great indignation 
in view of the fact that William Franklin was to be 
a brother governor. He wrote to Lord Stirling, 

" It is no less amazing than true, that Mr. WiU 
Ham Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin of Philadel- 
phia, is appointed to be governor of the province of 
New Jersey. I make no doubt that the people of 
New Jersey will make some remonstrances at this 
indignity put upon them. You are full as well ac- 
quainted with the character and principles of this 
person as myself, and are as able to judge of the im- 
propriety of such an appointment. What a dishonor 
and a disgrace it must be to a country to have such 
a man at the head of it, and to sit down contented. 
I should hope that some effort will be made before 
our Jersey friends would put up with such an insult. 
If any geyitleman had been appointed, it would have 
been a different case. But I cannot look upon the 
person in question in that light by any means. I 
may perhaps be too strong in my expressions, but I 
am so extremely astonished and enraged at it, that 
I am hardly able to contain myself at the thcMght 
of it." 

Franklin sailed frcm Portsmouth the latter part 



210 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

of August. Quite a fleet of American merchantmen 
sailed together. The weather during a voyage of 
nine weeks, was most of the time delightful. Often 
the vessels glided along so gently over a waveless 
sea, that the passengers could visit, and exchange 
invitations for dinner parties. 

On the first of November, Franklin reached his 
home. He had been absent nearly six years. All 
were well. His daughter, whom he had left a child 
of twelve, was now a remarkably beautiful and ac- 
complished maiden of eighteen. Franklin was 
received not only with affection, but with enthu- 
siasm. The Assembly voted him fifteen thousand 
dollars for his services in England. 

His son William, with his bride, did not arrive 
until the next February. Franklin accompanied 
him to New Jersey. The people there gave the 
governor a very kind greeting. He took up his resi- 
dence in Burlington, within fifteen miles of the 
home of his father. 

Franklin had attained the age of fifty-seven. 
He was in perfect health, had an ample fortune, and 
excelled most men in his dignified bearing and his 
attractive features. Probably there never was a 
more happy man. He had leisure to devote himself 
to his beloved sciences. It was his dream, his castle 
in the air, to withdraw from political life, and 



franklin's mission to ENoLAND. 2X1 

devote the remainder of his days to philosophical 
research. 

In the year 1763 terminated the seven years' 
war. There was peace in Europe, peace on the 
ocean, but not peace along the blood crimsoned 
frontiers of the wilderness of America. England 
and France had been hurling savage warriors 
by tens of thousands against each other, and 
against the helpless emigrants in their defenceless 
villages and their lonely cabins. The belligerent 
powers of Europe, in their ambitious struggles, cared 
very little for the savages of North America. Like 
the hungry wolf they had lapped blood. Plunder 
had become as attractive to them as to the priva- 
teersman and the pirate. During the summer of 
1763, the western regions of Pennsylvania were fear- 
fully ravaged by these fierce bands. Thousands of 
settlers were driven from their homes, their buildings 
laid in ashes, and their farms utterly desolated. 

In all the churches contributions were raised, in 
behalf of the victims of this insane and utterly need- 
less war. Christ church alone raised between 
three and four thousand dollars ; and sent a mis- 
sionary to expend the sum among these starving, 
woe-stricken families. The missionary reported 
seven hundred and fifty farms in Pennsylvania alone, 
utterly abandoned. Two hundred and fifty women 



212 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and children, destitute and despairing, had fled to 
Fort Pitt for protection. •. 

In the midst of these awful scenes, Governor 
Hamilton resigned, and the weak, haughty John 
Penn arriving, took his place. The Assembly, as 
usual, gave him a courteous reception, wishing, if 
possible, to avert a quarrel. There were many 
fanatics in those days. Some of these assumed that 
God was displeased, because the heathen Indians 
had not been entirely exterminated. The savages 
had perpetrated such horrors, that by them no 
distinction was made between those friendly to 
the English, and those hostile. The very name 
of Indian was loathed. 

In the vicinity of Lancaster, there was the feeble 
remnant of a once powerful tribe. The philanthropy 
of William Penn had won them to love the English. 
No one of them had ever been known to lift his 
hand against a white man. There were but twenty 
remaining, seven men, five women and eight chil- 
dren. They were an industrious,' peaceful, harmless 
people, having adopted English names, English 
customs and the Christian religion. 

A vagabond party of Scotch-Irish, from Paxton, 
set out, in the morning of the 14th of December 
for their destruction. They were well mounted 
and well armed. It so happened that there were 



franklin's mission to ENGLAND. 2 1 3. 

but six Indians at home. They made no defence. 
Parents and children knelt, as in prayer, and silently 
received the death blow. Every head was cleft 
by the hatchet. These poor creatures were very 
affectionate, and had greatly endeared themselves to 
their neighbors. This deed of infamous assassina- 
tion roused the indignation of many of the most 
worthy people in the province. But there were 
thousands of the baser sort, who deemed it no crime 
to kill an Indian, any more than a wolf or a bear. 

Franklin wrote, to the people of Pennsylvania^ 
a noble letter of indignant remonstrance, denounc- 
ing the deed as atrocious murder. Vividly he pic- 
tured the scene of the assassination, and gave the 
names, ages and characters of the victims. A hun- 
dred and forty Moravian Indians, the firm and un- 
suspected friends of the English, terrified by this 
massacre, fled to Philadelphia for protection. The 
letter of Franklin had excited much sympathy in 
their behalf. The people rallied for their protec- 
tion. The Paxton murderers, several hundred in- 
number, pursued the fugitives, avowing their deter- 
mination to put every one to death. The imbecile 
governor was at his wits* end. Franklin was sum- 
moned. 

He, at once, proclaimed his house headquarters ; 
rallied a regiment of a thousand men, and made 



214 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

•efficient arrangements to give the murderers a warm 
reception. The Paxton band reached Germantown. 
Franklin, anxious to avoid bloodshed, rode out with 
three aids, to confer with the leaders. He writes, 

" The fighting face we had put on, and the rea« 
sonings wc used with the insurgents, having turned 
them back, and restored quiet to the city, I became 
a less man than ever ; for I had, by this transaction, 
tn*^J€ myself many enemies among the populace." 



CHAPTER X. 

Franklin s Second Mission to England, 

Fiendish conduct of John Penn — Petition to the crown — Debt <A 
England — Two causes of conflict — Franklin sent to Eng- 
land — His embarkation — Wise counsel to his daughter — The 
stamp act — American resolves — Edmund Burke — Examination 
of Franklin — Words of Lord Chatham — Dangers to English 
operatives — Repeal of the stamp act — Joy in America — Ross 
Mackay — New taxes levied — Character of George III — Accumu- 
lation of honors to Franklin — Warlike preparations — Human 
conscientiousness — Unpopularity of William Franklin — Marriage 
of Sarah Franklin — Franklin's varied investigations — Efforts to 
civilize the Sandwich Islands. 

It is scarcely too severe to say that Governor 
John Penn was both knave and fool. To ingratiate 
himself with the vile Paxton men and their parti- 
sans, he issued a proclamation, offering for every 
captive male Indian, of any hostile tribe, one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars, for every female, one hundred 
and thirty-eight dollars. For the scalp of a male, 
the bounty was one hundred and thirty-eight dol- 
lars ; for the scalp of a female fifty dollars. Of 
course it would be impossible, when the scalps were 
brought in to decide whether they were stripped 
from friendly or hostile heads. 



2ie> BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Curiously two political parties were thus organ- 
ized. The governor, intensely inimical to Fianklin, 
led all the loose fellows who approved of the 
massacre of the friendly Indians. Franklin was sup* 
ported by the humane portion of the community, 
who regarded that massacre with horror. 

There was much bitterness engendered. Franklin 
was assailed and calumniated as one of the worst of 
men. He, as usual, wrote a pamphlet, which was read 
far and wide. Earnestly he urged that the crown, 
as it had a right to do, should, by purchase, take pos- 
session of the province and convert its government 
into that of a royal colony. It should be remem- 
bered that this was several years before the troubles 
of the revolution arose. The people were in heart 
true Englishmen. Fond of their nationality, sin- 
cere patriotism glowed in all bosoms. They ever 
spoke of England as ** home." When the Assembly 
met again three thousand citizens, influenced mainly 
by Franklin's pamphlet, sent in a petition that the 
province might revert to the crown. The Penns 
succeeded in presenting a counter petition signed by 
three hundred. 

The British cabinet, in its insatiable thirst for 
universal coiquest, or impelled by necessity to repel 
the encroachments of other nations, equally wicked 
and equally grasping, had been by fleet and army, 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 21^ 

fighting all over the world. After spending every 
dollar which the most cruel taxation could extort 
from the laboring and impoverished masses, the 
government had incurred the enormous debt of 
seventy-three millions sterling. This amounted to 
over three hundred and sixty-five millions of our 
money. 

The government decided to tax the Americans 
to help pay the interest on this vast sum. But the 
colonies were already taxed almost beyond endu- 
rance, to carry on the terrible war against the 
French and Indians. This war was not one of their 
own choosing. It had been forced upon them by 
the British Cabinet, in its resolve to drive the 
French off the continent of North America. The 
Americans were allowed no representation in Parlia- 
ment. They were to be taxed according to the 
caprice of the government. Franklin, with patriotic 
foresight, vehemently, and with resistless force of 
logic, resisted the outrage. 

It will be perceived that there were now two 
quite distinct sources of controversy. First came 
the conflict with the proprietaries, and then rose 
the still more important strife with the cabinet of 
Great Britain, to repel the principle of taxation 
without representation. This principle once ad- 
mitted, the crown could tax the Americans to any 
lo 






2l8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

amount whatever it pleased. Many unreflecting 
people could not appreciate these disastrous results. 

Thus all the partisans of the Penns, and all the 
office holders of the crown and their friends, and 
there were many such, became not only opposed to 
Franklin, but implacable in their hostility. The 
majority of the Assembly was with him. He was 
chosen Speaker, and then was elected to go again to 
England, to carry with him to the British Court the 
remonstrances of the people against " taxation with- 
out representation/* and their earnest petition to be 
delivered from the tyranny of the Penns. More un- 
welcome messages to the British Court and aris- 
tocracy, he could not well convey. It was certain 
that the Penns and their powerful coadjutors, would 
set many influences in array against him. Mr. Dick- 
inson, in the Assembly, remonstrating against this 
appointment, declared that there was no man in 
Pennsylvania who was more the object of popular 
dislike than Benjamin Franklin. 

But two years had elapsed since Franklin's teturn 
to America, after an absence from his home of six 
years. He still remembered fondly the " dense happi- 
iiess " which he had enjoyed in the brilliant circles 
abroad. This, added to an intensity of patriotism, 
which rendered him second to none but Washington, 
among the heroes of the Revolution, induced him 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 219 

promptly to accept the all important mission. He 
allowed but twelve days to prepare for his embarka- 
tion. The treasury was empty, and money for his 
expenses had to be raised by a loan. A packet ship, 
bound for London was riding at Chester, fifteen miles 
below the city. Three hundred of the citizens of 
Philadelphia, on horseback, escorted Franklin to the 
ship. 

He seldom attended church, though he always 
encouraged his wife and daughter to do so. It was 
genteel ; it was politic. A family could scarcely com- 
mand the respect of the community, which, in the 
midst of a religious people, should be living without 
any apparent object of worship. The preacher of 
Christ Church, which the family attended, was a par- 
tisan of the Penns. Sometimes he " meddled with 
politics.'* Franklin in his parting letter, from on ship>- 
board, wrote to his daughter : 

" Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. 
The active devotion in the common prayer-book, is 
your principal business there, and if properly 
attended to, will do more towards amending the 
heart, than sermons generally can do. For they 
were composed by men of much greater piety and 
wisdom, than our common composers of sermons can 
pretend to be. Therefore I wish that you would 
never miss the prayer days. Yet I do not mean you 



220 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

should despise sermons, even of the preachers yon 
dislike ; for the discourse is often much better than 
the man, as sweet and clear waters come through 
very dirty earth." 

The voyage was stormy; it lasted thirty days. 
On the evening of the tenth of December, 1764, he 
again took up his residence in the house of Mrs. 
Stephenson and her daughter, where he was received 
with delight. He found several other agents of the 
<:olonies in London, who had also been sent to re- 
monstrate against the despotic measures which the 
British Cabinet threatened, of taxing the Americans 
at its pleasure, without allowing them to have any 
voice in deciding upon the sums which they should 
pay. 

Grenville was prime minister. He was about to 
introduce the Stamp Act, as an initiatory measure. 
It imposed but a trivial tax, in itself of but little 
importance, but was intended as an experiment, to 
ascertain whether the Americans would submit to 
the principle. This fact being once established, the 
government could then proceed to demand money 
at its pleasure. Franklin opposed the tax with all 
his energies. He declared it, in his own forceful 
language, to be the " mother of mischiefs." With 
four other colonial agents, he held an interview with 
Lord Grenville. The usual arguments were employed 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 221 

on both sides. Lord Grenville was courteous, but 
veiy decided. The Americans he declared must help 
England pay the interest on her debt, and the 
parliament of Great Britain alone could decide how 
large an amount of money the Americans should pay 
The bill was introduced to parliament, and passed by 
a large majority. The king signed it in a scrawling 
hand, which some think indicated the insanity he 
was beginning to develop. 

The trivial sum expected to be raised by the 
Stamp Act amounted to scarcely one hundred thou- 
sand pounds a year. It was thought that the Amer- 
cans would not venture upon any decisive opposition 
to England for such a trifle. Franklin wrote to a 
friend : 

" I took every step in my power, to prevent the 
passing of the Stamp Act. But the tide was too 
strong against us. The nation was provoked by 
American claims of legislative independence ; and all 
parties joined in resolving, by this act, to settle the 
point." 

Thus Franklin entirely failed in arresting the 
passing of the Stamp Act. He was also equally un- 
successful in his endeavor to promote a change of 
government, from the proprietary to the royal. And 
still his mission proved a success. By conversations, 
pamphlets and articles in the newspapers, he raised 



■ / 

,1 / 



V 



222 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

throughout the country such an opposition to the 
measure that parliament was compelled to repeal it. 
The tidings of the passage of the Stamp Act was 
received in intelligent America, with universal ex- 
pressions of displeasure, and with resolves to oppose 
its operation in every possible way. 

It is remarked of a celebrated theological pro- 
fessor, that he once said to his pupils, 

" When you go to the city to preach, take your 
best coat ; when to the country, take your best 
sermon." 

The lords and gentry of England were astonished 
at the intelligence displayed in the opposition, by 
the rural population of America. They fancied the 
colonists to be an ignorant, ragged people, living 
in log cabins, scattered through the wilderness, and, 
in social position, two or three degrees below Eu- 
ropean and Irish peasantry. Great was their sur- 
prise to hear from all the colonies, and from the 
remotest districts in each colony, the voice of intel- 
ligent and dignified rebuke. 

The Act was to go into execution on the first of 
November, 1765. Before that time, Franklin had 
spread, through all the mechanical, mercantile and 
commercial classes, the conviction that they would 
suffer ten-fold more, by the interruptions of trade 
which the Stamp Act would introduce, than govern- 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 223 

ment could hope to gain by the measure. He spread 
abroad the intelligence which came by every fresh 
arrival, that the Americans were resolving, with won- 
derful unanimity, that they would consume no more 
English manufactures, that they would purchase no 
more British goods, and that, as far as possible, in 
food, clothing, and household furniture, they would 
depend upon their own productions. They had even 
passed resolves to eat no more lamb, that their flocks 
might so increase that they should have wool 
enough to manufacture their own clothing. 

England had thus far furnished nearly all the 
supplies for the rapidly increasing colonies, already 
numbering a population of between two and three 
millions. The sudden cessation of this trade was 
felt in nearly every warehouse of industry. No 
more orders came. Goods accumulated without 
purchasers. Violent opposition arose, and vast 
meetings were held in the manufacturing districts, 
to remonstrate against the measures of the govern- 
ment. Edmund Burke, a host in himself, headed 
the opposition in parliament. 

Burke and Franklin were' intimate friends, and 
the renowned orator obtained from the renowned 
philosopher, many of those arguments and captiva- 
ting illustrations, which, uttered on the floor of par- 
liament, astonished England, and reaching our 



224 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

shores, electrified America. The state of affairs 
became alarming. In some places the stamps were 
destroyed, in others, no one could be found who 
would venture upon the obnoxious task of offering 
to sell them. The parliament resolved itself into a 
committee of the whole house, and spent six weeks 
in hearing testimony respecting the operation of 
the act in America. The hall was crowded with 
eager listeners. The industrial prosperity of the 
nation seemed at stake. Franklin was the princi- 
pal witness. His testimony overshadowed all the 
rest. The record of it was read with admiration. 
Seldom has a man been placed in a more embarrass- 
ing situation, and never has one, under such circum- 
stances, acquitted himself more triumphantly. 

He was examined and cross-examined, before 
this vast and imposing assemblage, by the shrewdest 
lawyers of the crown. Every attempt was made to 
throw him into embarrassment, to trip him in his 
speech. But never for a moment did Franklin lose 
his self-possession. Never for an instant, did he 
hesitate in his reply. In the judgment of all his 
friends, not a mistake did he make. His mind 
seemed to be omnisciently furnished, with all the 
needful statistics for as rigorous an examination as 
any mortal was ever exposed to. Burke wrote to a 
friend, " that Franklin as he stood before the bar 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 22$ 

of parliament, presented such an aspect of dignity 
and intellectual superiority as to remind him of a 
schoolmaster questioned by school boys." Rev. 
George Whitefield wrote, 

'* Our worthy friend. Dr. Franklin, has gained 
immortal honor, by his behavior at the bar of the 
house. The answer was always found equal, if not 
superior to the questioner. He stood unappalled, 
gave pleasure to his friends, and did honor to his 
country." 

After great agitation and many and stormy 
debates, the haughty government was compelled to 
yield to the demands of the industrial classes. 
Indeed, with those in England, who cried most 
loudly for the repeal of the stamp act, there were 
comparatively few who were influenced by any sym- 
pathy for the Americans, or by any appreciation of 
the justice of their cause. The loss of the American 
trade was impoverishing them. Selfish considera- 
tions alone, — their own personal interests — moved 
them to action. 

There were individuals, in and out of Parliament, 
who recognized the rights of Englishmen, and 
regarding the Americans as Englishmen, and Amer- 
ica as a portion of the British empire, were in heart 
and with all their energies, in sympathy with the 
y\mericans in their struggle for their rights. When 



226 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

the despotism of the British court led that couit to 
the infamous measure of sending fleets and armies, 
to compel the Americans to submission, and the 
feeble colonists, less than three millions in number, 
performing the boldest and most heroic deeds ever 
yet recorded in history, grasped their arms in self- 
defence, thus to wage war against the most power- 
ful naval and military empire upon this globe, Lord 
Chatham, with moral courage rarely surpassed, 
boldly exclaimed in the House of Lords, " Were I 
an American, as I am an Englishman, I would never 
lay down my arms, never, never, NEVER." 

In all England, there was no man more deter- 
mined in his resolve to bring the Americans to ser 
vile obedience, than the stubborn king, George III 
The repeal gave him intense offence. The equally 
unprincipled, but more intelligent, ministers were 
compelled to the measure, as they saw clearly that 
England was menaced with civil war, which would 
array the industrial classes generally against the 
aristocracy. In such a conflict it was far from im- 
probable that the aristocracy would be brought to 
grief. Horace Walpole wrote, 

** It was the clamor of trade, of merchants, 
and of manufacturing towns, that had borne down 
all opposition. A general insurrection was appre- 
hended, as the immediate consequence of upholding 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 22/ 

the bill. The revolt of America, and the destruc- 
tion of trade, was the prospect in future." 

Still the question of the repeal was carried in 
the House but by a majority of one hundred and 
eight votes. Of course Franklin now solicited 
permission to return home. The Assembly, instead 
of granting his request, elected him agent for ano- 
ther year. It does not appear that Franklin was 
disappointed. 

The report of his spleadid and triumphant exam- 
ination, before the Commons, and the republication 
of many of his pamphlets, had raised him to the 
highest position of popularity. The Americans, 
throughout all the provinces, received tidings of the 
Repeal with unbounded delight. Bells were rung, 
bon-fires blazed, cannon were fired. 

" I never heard so much noise in my life," wrote 
Sally to her '' honored papa." " The very children 
seemed distracted." 

The Tory party in England developed no little 
malignity in their anger, in view of the discomfiture 
of their plans. The bigoted Tory, Dr. Johnson, 
wrote to Bishop White of Pennsylvania, that if he 
had been Prime Minister, instead of repealing the 
act, he would have sent a man-of-war, and laid one 
or more of our largest cities in ashes.* 

* Wilson's Life of Bishop White, p. $9. 



22» BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

The king felt personally aggrieved. His de. 
nunciations of those who favored the Repeal were 
so indecent, that some of his most influential friends 
ventured to intimate to him that it was highly im- 
politic. Indeed, as the previous narrative has 
shown, many who were in entire sympathy with the 
king, and who were bitterly opposed to any conces- 
sion to the Americans, felt compelled to vote for 
the Repeal. 

To propitiate the unrelenting and half-crazed 
monarch, with his obdurate court, a Declaratory 
Act, as it was called, was passed, which affirmed the 
absolute supremacy of Parliament over the colonies. 

We hear very much of the corruption of our own 
Congress. It is said that votes are sometimes 
bought and sold. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, who was 
a member of Parliament during all this period, 
declares, in his intensely interesting and undoubted- 
ly honest Memoir, that under the ministry of Lord 
Bute, Ross Mackay was employed by him as " cor- 
rupter-general " whose mission it was to carry 
important measures of government by bribery. 
Wraxall writes that Ross Mackay said to him. at a 
dinner party given by Lord Besborougli, as the 
illustrious guests were sipping their wine, 

** The peace of 1763 was carried through and 
approved by a pecuniary dispensation. Nothing 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 229 

else could have surmounted the difficulty. I was 
myself the channel through which the money 
passed. With my own hand I secured above one 
hundred and twenty votes on that most important 
question to ministers. Eighty thousand pounds 
were set apart for the purpose. Forty members of 
the House of Commons received from me a thou- 
sand pounds each. To eighty others I paid five 
hundred pounds a-piece." 

The unrelenting king was still determined that 
the Americans, unrepresented in Parliament, should 
still pay into his treasury whatever sums of money 
he might exact. Calling to his aid courtiers more 
shrewd than himself, they devised a very cunning 
act, to attain that object in a way which would 
hardly be likely to excite opposition. They laid a 
tax, insignificant really in its amount, upon paper, 
paint, glass, and tea. This tax was to be collected 
at the custom-houses in the few ports of entry in the 
colonies. The whole amount thus raised would not 
exceed forty thousand pounds. It was thought 
that the Americans would never make opposition to 
so trivial a payment. 

But it established a principle that England could 
tax the colonies without allowing those colonies any 
representation in Parliament. If the Court had a 
right thus to demand forty thousand pounds, they 



230 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

had a right to demand so many millions, sHould it 
seem expedient to king and cabinet so to do. 

The great blunder which the court committed, 
was in not appreciating the wide-spread intelligence 
of the American people. In New England particu- 
larly, and throughout the colonies generally, there 
was scarcely a farmer who did not perceive the trick, 
and despise it. They deemed it an insult to their 
intelligence. ' 

Instantly there arose, throughout all the provin- 
ces, the most determined opposition to the measure. 
It was in fact merely a renewal of the Stamp Act, 
under slightly modified forms. If they admitted 
the justice of this act, it was only declaring that 
.hey had acted with unpardonable folly, in opposing 
the tax under the previous form. 

Dr. Franklin, with honest shrewdness, not with 
trickery or with cunning, but with a sincere and pen- 
etrating mind, eagerly scrutinized all the measures 
of the Court. George III. was a gentleman. He 
was irreproachable in all his domestic relations. He 
was, in a sense, conscientious ; for certainly he was 
not disposed to do anything -vhich he thought to be 
wrong. Conscientious men have burned their fel- 
low-Christians at the stake. It is said that George 
the Third was a Christian. He certainly was a full 
believer in the religion of Jesus Christ , and earnest- 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 23 1 

ly advocated the support and extension of that reli- 
gion. God makes great allowance for the frailties 
of his fallen children. It requires the wisdom of 
omniscience to decide how much wickedness there 
may be in the heart, consistently with piety. No 
man is perfect. 

During the reign of George III., terrible wars 
were waged throughout all the world, mainly incited 
by the British Court. Millions perished. The 
moans of widows and orphans ascended from every 
hand. This wicked Christian king sent his navy 
and his army to burn down our cities and villages, 
and to shoot husbands, fathers, and sons, until he 
could compel America to submit to his despotism. 
The population of England being exhausted by those 
wide spread wars, he hired, of the petty princes of 
Europe, innocent peasantry, to abandon their homes 
in Germany, to burn and destroy the homes of 
Americans. Ending that not sufficient, he sent his 
agents through the wilderness to rouse, by bribes, 
savage men, who knew no better, to ravage our 
frontiers, to burn the cabins of lonely farmers, to 
tomahawk and scalp their wives and children. 

Such a man may be a good Christian. God, who 
can read the secrets of the heart, and who is infinite 
in his love and charity, alone can decide. But if 
we imagine that man, George Guelph, at the bar of 



232 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

judgment, and thronging up as witnesses against 
him, the millions whose earthly homes he converted 
into abodes of misery and despair, it is difficult to 
imagine in our frail natures, how our Heavenly Fa- 
ther, who loves all his children alike, and who, as 
revealed in the person of Jesus, could weep over the 
woes of humanity, could look with a loving smile 
upon him and say, " Well done, good and faithful 
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

Franklin of course continued in as determined an 
opposition to the new tax as to the old one. He 
wrote, 

** I have some little property in America. I will 
freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound to defend 
my right of giving or refusing the other shilling. 
And after all, if I cannot defend that right, I can 
retire cheerfully with my little family into the bound- 
less woods of America, which are sure to afford free- 
dom and subsistence to any man who can bait a hook 
or pull a trigger." 

The ability which Franklin had displayed as the 

agent of Pennsylvania before the court of St. James, 

gave him, as we have said, a high reputation in all 

the colonies. In the spring of 1768 he was highly 

/ gratified by the intelligence that he was appointed, 

/ by the young colony of Georgia its London agent. 

I The next year New Jersey conferred the same honor 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 233 

upon him, and the year after, he was appointed agent 
of his native province of Massachusetts. These 
several appointments detained him ten years in Eng- 
land. 

During all this time he did not visit home. The 
equanimity of his joyful spirit seems never to have 
been disturbed. His pen describes only pleasant 
scenes. No murmurs are recorded, no yearnings of 
home-sickness. 

But month after month the animosity of the Brit- 
ish Court towards the Americans was increasing. 
The king grew more and more fixed in his purpose, 
to compel the liberty-loving Americans to submis- 
sion. Hostile movements were multiplied to indicate 
that if the opposition to his measures was continued, 
English fleets and armies would soon commence 
operations. 

Several thousand troops were landed in Boston. 
Fourteen men-of-war were anchored before the town, 
with the cannon of their broad-sides loaded and 
primed, ready, at the slightest provocation to lay the 
whole town in ashes. Protected by this terrible 
menace, two British regiments paraded the streets-, 
with their muskets charged, with gleaming sabres and 
bayonets, with formidable artillery prepared to vomit 
forth the most horrible discharges of grape shot, with 
haughty English officers well mounted, and soldiers 



534 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 
and officers alike in imposing uniforms. This invin- 
cible band of highly disciplined soldiers, as a peace 
measure, took possession of the Common, the State 
House, the Court House and Faneuil Hall. 

Even now, after the lapse of more than a hundred 
years, it makes the blood of an American boil to con- 
template this insult. Who can imagine the feelings 
■of exasperation that must have glowed in the bosoms 
of our patriotic fathers ! 

Franklin, in England, was treated with ever in- 
creasing disrespect. Lord Hillsborough, then in 
charge of American affairs, told him peremptorily, 
even insolently, that America could expect no favors 
while he himself was in power, and that he was de- 
termined to persevere with firmness in the policy 
which the king was pursuing. The king was so 
shielded by his ministers that Franklin knew but 
little about him. Even at this time he wrote, 

" I can scarcely conceive a king of better dispo- 
sitions, of more exemplary virtues, or more truly 
desirous of promoting the welfare of his subjects.*' 

Franklin never had occasion to speak differ- 
ently of his domestic virtues. Nay, it is more than 
probable that the king daily, in prayer, looked to 
God for guidance, and that ne thought that he was 
■doing that which was promotive of the interests of 
England. Alas for man ! He can perpetrate the 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 235. 

most atrocious crimes, honestly believing that he is 
doing God's will. He can burn aged women under 
the charge of their being witches. He can torture 
in the infliction of unutterable anguish, his brother 
man — mothers and daughters, under the charge of 
heresy. He can hurl hundreds of thousands of men 
against each other in most horrible and woe-inflict- 
ing wars, while falling upon his knees and praying 
to God to bless his murderous armies. 

Franklin had with him his grandson, William 
Temple Franklin, the dishonored son of William 
Franklin, then Governor of New Jersey. He was a 
bright and promising boy, and developed an estima- 
ble character, under the guidance of his grandfather,, 
who loved him. 

William Franklin in New Jersey was, however 
becoming increasingly the scourge of his father. It 
would seem that Providence was thus, in some 
measure, punishing Franklin for his sin. The gov- 
ernor, appointed by the Court of England to his 
office, which he highly prized, and which he feared 
to lose, was siding with the Court. He perceived 
that the storm of political agitation was increasing 
in severity. He felt that the power of the colonies 
was as nothing compared with the power of the 
British government. Gradually he became one of 
the most violent of the tories. 



236 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The moderation of Franklin, and his extraordl 
narily charitable disposition, led him to refrain from 
all denunciations of his ungrateful son, or even 
reproaches, until his conduct became absolutely in- 
famous. In 1773, he wrote, in reference to the 
course which the governor was pursuing, 

" I only wish you to act uprightly and steadily, 
avoiding that duplicity which, in Hutchinson, adds 
contempt to indignation. If you can promote the 
prosperity of your people, and leave them happier 
than you found them, whatever your political prin- 
ciples are, your memory will be honored." 

While Franklin was absent, a young merchant 
of Philadelphia, Richard Bache, offered his hand to 
Franklin's only daughter, from whom the father had 
been absent nearly all of her life. Sarah was then 
twenty-three years of age, so beautiful as to become 
quite a celebrity, and she was highly accomplished. 
Mr. Bache was not successful in business, and the 
young couple resided under the roof of Mrs. Frank- 
lin for eight years. The husband, with an increas- 
ing family, appealed to his illustrious father-in-law, 
to obtain for him a governmental appointment, 
Franklin wrote to his daughter, 

" I am of opinion, that almost any profession a 
man has been educated in, is preferable to an office 
held at pleasure, as rendering him more independ- 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 237 

ent, more a free man, and less subject to the ca- 
prices of his superiors. I think that in keeping a 
store, if it be where you dwell, you can be service- 
able to him, as your mother was to me ; for you are 
not deficient in capacity, and I hope you are not 
too proud. You might easily learn accounts ; and 
you can copy letters, or write them very well on 
occasion. By industry and frugality you may get 
forward in the world, being both of you very young. 
And then what we may leave you at our death, will 
be a pretty addition, though of itself far from suffi- 
cient to maintain and bring up a family." 

Franklin gave his son-in-law about a thousand 
dollars to assist him in the purchase of a stock of 
merchandise. The children, born to this happy 
couple, were intelligent and beautiful, and they 
greatly contributed to the happiness of their grand- 
mother, who cherished them with a grandmother's 
most tender love. In the year 1862, there were one 
hundred and ten surviving descendants of Richard 
Bache and Sarah Franklin. Ten of these were 
serving in the Union army perilling their lives to 
maintain that national fabric, which their illustrious 
ancestor had done so much to establish. Franklin 
was by no means a man of one idea. His compre- 
hensive mind seemed to grasp all questions of 
statesmanship, of philanthropy, of philosophy. 



238 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

During the ten years of his residence in England 
he visited the hospitals, carefully examined theif 
management, and transmitted to his home the re- 
sult of his observations. This was probably the 
origin of the celebrity which the medical schools of 
Philadelphia have attained. He visited the silk 
manufactories, and urged the adoption of that 
branch of industry, as peculiarly adapted to oui 
climate and people. Ere long he had the pleasure 
of presenting to the queen a piece of American silk, 
which she accepted and wore as a dress. As silk 
was an article not produced in England, the govern- 
ment was not offended by the introduction of that 
branch of industry. For Hartford college he pro- 
cured a telescope, which cost about five hundred 
dollars. This was, in those days, an important 
event. 

The renowned Captain Cook returned from his 
first voyage around the world. The narrative of his 
adventures, in the discovery of new islands, and 
new races of men, excited almost every mind in 
England and America. Franklin was prominent in 
the movement, to raise seventy-five thousand dol- 
lars, to fit out an expedition to send to those be- 
nighted islanders the fowls, the quadrupeds and the 
seeds of Europe. He wrote, in an admirable strain, 

*' Many voyages have been undertaken with 



SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND. 239 

views of profit or of plunder, or to gratify resent- 
ment. But a voyage is now proposed to visit a dis- 
tant people on the other side of the globe, not to 
cheat them, not to rob them : not to seize their 
lands or to enslave their persons, but merely to do 
them good, and make them, as far as in our power 
lies, to live as comfortable as ourselves." 

There can be no national prosperity without 
virtue. There can not be a happy people who do 
not ** do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with 
God." It was a noble enterprise to send to those 
naked savages corn and hoes, with horses, pigs and 
poultry. But the Christian conscience awoke to the 
conviction that something more than this was 
necessary. They sent, to the dreary huts of the 
Pacific, ambassadors of the religion of Jesus, to 
gather the children in schools, to establish the 
sanctity of the family relation, and to proclaim to all^ 
the glad tidings of that divine Saviour, who has 
come to earth ** to seek and to save the lost." 



CHAPTER XI. 

The Intolerance of King and Court. 

Parties in England — Franklin the favorite of the opposition — Fl&ni 
of the Tories — Christian III — Letter of Franklin — Dr. Priestley — 
Parisian courtesy — Louis XV — Visit to Ireland — Attempted al- 
teration of the Prayer Book — Letter to his son — Astounding let- 
ters from America — Words of John Adams — Petition of the 
Assembly — Violent conspiracy against Franklin — His bearing in 
the court-room — Wedderburn's infamous charges — Letter of 
Franklin — Bitter words of Dr. Johnson — Morals of English 
lords — Commercial value of the Colonies — Dangers threatening 
Franklin. 

Wherever there is a government there must be 
an opposition. Those who are out of office wish to 
eiect those in office, that they may take their places. 
There was a pretty strong party in what was called 
the Opposition. But it was composed of persons 
animated by very different motives. The first con- 
sisted of those intelligent, high minded, virtuous 
statesmen, who were indignant in view of the wrong 
which the haughty, unprincipled Tory government 
was inflicting upon the American people. The sec- 
ond gathered those who were in trade. They cared 
nothing for the Americans. They cared nothing 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 24I 

for government right or wrong. They wished to 
sell their hats, their cutlery, and their cotton and 
woolen goods to the Americans. This they could 
not do while government was despotically enforcing 
the Stamp Act or the Revenue Bill. Then came a 
third class, who had no goods to sell, and no con- 
science to guide to action. They were merely am- 
bitious politicians. They wished to thrust the 
Tories out of office simply that they might rush into 
the occupancy of all the places of honor, emolument 
or power. 

Franklin was in high favor with the opposition, 
He furnished their orators in Parliament with argu- 
ments, with illustrations, with accurate statistical 
information. Many of the most telling passages in 
parliamentary speeches, were placed on the lips of 
the speakers by Benjamin Franklin. He wrote pam- 
phlets of marvellous popular power, which were read 
in all the workshops, and greatly increased the num- 
ber and the intelligence of the foes of the govern- 
ment measures. Thus Franklin became the favorite 
of the popular party. They lavished all honors upon 
him. In the same measure he became obnoxious to 
the haughty, aristocratic Tory government. Its 
ranks were filled with the lords, the governmental 
officials, and all their dependents. This made a 
party very powerful in numbers, and still more pow. 
II 



242 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

erful in wealth and influence. They were watching 
for opportunities to traduce Franklin, to ruin his rep- 
utation, and if possible, to bring him into contempt. 

This will explain the honors which were conferred 
upon him by one party, and the indignities to which 
he was subjected from the other. At times, the 
Tories would make efforts by flattery, by offers of po- 
sition, of emolument, by various occult forms of 
bribery, to draw Franklin 4:o their side. He might 
very easily have attained almost any amount of 
wealth and high official dignity. 

The king of Denmark, Christian VII., was broth- 
er-in-law of George III. He visited England ; a 
mere boy in years, and still more a weak boy in 
insipidity of character. A large dinner-party was 
given in his honor at the Royal Palace. Franklin 
was one of the guests. In some way unexplained, 
he impressed the boy-king with a sense of his inher- 
ent and peculiar greatness. Christian invited a select 
circle of but sixteen men to dine with him. Among 
those thus carefully selected, Franklin was honored 
with an invitation. Though sixty-seven years of age 
he still enjoyed in the highest degree, convivial 
scenes. He could tell stories, and sing songs which 
'^ave delight to all. It was his boast that he could 
empty his two bottles of wine, and still retain entire 
sobriety. He wrote to Hugh Roberts, 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 243 

'* I wish you would continue to meet the Junto. 
It wants but about two years of forty since it was 
established. We loved, and still love one another ; 
we have grown grey together, and yet it is too early 
to part. Let us sit till the evening of life is spent ; 
the last hours are always the most joyous. When 
we can stay no longer, it is time enough to bid each 
other good night, separate, and go quietly to bed." 

Franklin was the last person to find any enjoyment 
in the society of vulgar and dissolute men. In those 
days, it was scarcely a reproach for a young lord to 
be carried home from a festivity in deadly intoxica- 
tion. Witticisms were admitted into such circles 
which respectable men would not tolerate now. 
FrankHn's most intimate friends in London were found 
among Unitarian clergymen, and those philosophers 
who were in sympathy with him in his rejection of the 
Christian rehgion. Dr. Richard Price, and Dr. Joseph 
Priestly, men both eminent for intellectual ability 
and virtues, were his bosom friends. 

Dr. Priestly, who had many conversations with 
Franklin upon religious topics, deeply deplored the 
looseness of his views. Though Dr. Priestly rejected 
the divinity of Christ, he still firmly adhered to the 
belief that Christianity was of divine origin. In his 
autobiography, Dr. Priestly writes : 

" It is much to be lamented that a man of Dr. 



244 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Franklin's generally good character and great influ- 
ence, should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, 
and also have done so much as he did to make others 
unbelievers. To me, however, he acknowledged that 
he had not given so much attention as he ought to 
have done to the evidences of Christianity ; and he 
desired me to recommend him a few treatises on the 
subject, such as I thought most deserving his notice." 

Priestly did so ; but Franklin, all absorbed in his 
social festivities, his scientific researches, and his in- 
tense patriotic labors, could find no time to devote 
to that subject — the immortal destiny of man, — 
which is infinitely more important to each individual 
than all others combined.* It was indeed a sad 
circle of unbelievers, into whose intimacy Franklin 
was thrown. Dr. Priestly writes, 

'' In Paris, in 1774, all the philosophical persons to 
whom I was introduced, were unbelievers in Chris- 

* Mr. Parton, in his excellent Life of Franklin, one of the best 
biographies which was ever written, objects to this withholding of the 
Christian name from Dr. Franklin. He writes, 

** I do not understand what Dr. Priestly meant, by saying that 
Franklin was an unbeliever in Christianity, since he himself was 
open to the same charge from nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Chris- 
tendom. Perhaps, if the two men were now alive, we might express 
the theological difference between them by saying that Priestly was 9 
Unitarian of the Channing school, and Franklin of that of Theodore 
Parker. Again he writes, " I have ventured to call Franklin the con- 
summate Christian of his time. Indeed I know not who, of any 
time, has exhibited more of the Spirit of Christ." — Parton^ s FrankHn 
Vol, I. p. 546. Vol. 2 p. 646. 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 245 

tianity, and even professed atheists. I was told by 
some of them, that I was the only person they had 
ever met, of whose understanding they had any 
opinion, who professed to believe in Christianity. 
But I soon found they did not really know what 
Christianity was." 

It was Franklin's practice to spend a part of 
every summer in traveling. In 1767, accompanied 
by Sir John Pringle, he visited Paris. With Frank- 
lin, one of the first of earthly virtues was courtesy. 
He was charmed with the politeness of the French 
people. Even the most humble of the working 
classes, were gentlemanly ; and from the highest 
to the lowest, he, simply as a stranger, was treated 
with consideration which surprised him. He writes, 

" The civilities we everywhere receive, give us 
the strongest impressions of the French politeness. 
It seems to be a point settled here universally, that 
strangers are to be treated with respect ; and one 
has just the same deference shown one here, by 
being a stranger, as in England, by being a lady." 

Two dozen bottles of port-wine were given them 
at Bordeaux. These, as the law required, were 
seized by the custom-house officers, as they entered 
Paris by the Porte St. Denis ; but as soon as it was 
ascertained that they were strangers, the wine was 
remitted. 



246 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

There was a magnificent illumination of the 
Church of Notre Dame, in honor of the deceased 
Dauphiness. Thousands could not obtain admission. 
An officer, learning merely that they were strangers, 
took them in charge, conducted them through the 
vast edifice, and showed them every thing. 

Franklin and his companion had the honor of a 
presentation to the king, Louis XV., at Versailles. 
This monarch was as vile a man as ever occupied a 
throne. But he had the virtue of courtesy, which 
Franklin placed at the head of religious principle. 
The philosopher simply records, 

" The king spoke to both of us very graciously 
and very cheerfully. He is a handsome man, has a 
very lively look, and appears younger than he is." 

In 1772, Franklin visited Ireland. He was 
treated there with great honor ; but the poverty of 
the Irish peasantry overwhelmed his benevolent 
heart with astonishment and dismay. He writes, 

** I thought often of the happiness of New Eng- 
land, where every man is a free-holder, has a vote in 
public affairs, lives in a tidy, warm house, has plenty 
of good food and fuel, with whole clothes from head 
to foot, the manufacture perhaps of his own family. 
Long may they continue in this situation." 

In the year 1773, Franklin spent several weeks 
In the beautiful mansion of his friend, Lord Despen- 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 247 

cer. We read with astonishment, that Franklin, 
who openly renounced all belief in the divine origin 
of Christianity, should have undertaken, with Lord 
Despencer, an abbreviation of the prayer-book of 
the Church of England. It is surprising, that he 
could have thought it possible, that the eminent 
Christians, clergy and laity of that church, would 
accept at the hands of a deist, their form of worship. 
But Franklin was faithful in the abbreviation, not to 
make the slightest change in the evangelical charac- 
ter of that admirable work, which through ages has 
guided the devotion of millions. The abbreviated 
service, cut down one-half, attracted no attention, 
and scarcely a copy was sold. 

At this time, Franklin's reputation was in its 
meridian altitude. There was scarcely a man in 
Europe or America, more prominent. Every learned 
body in Europe, of any importance, had elected him 
a member. Splendid editions of his works were 
published in London ; and three editions were issued 
from the press in Paris. 

In France, Franklin met with no insults, with no 
opposition. All alike smiled upon him, and the 
voices of commendation alone fell upon his ear. 

Returning to England, his reputation there, as a 
man of high moral worth, and of almost the highest 
intellectual attainments and a man honored in the 



248 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

most remarkable degree with all the highest offices 
which his countrymen could confer upon him, swept 
contumely from his path, and even his enemies were 
ashamed to manifest their hostility. From London 
he wrote to his son, 

" As to my situation here, nothing can be more 
agreeable. Learned and ingenious foreigners that 
come to England, almost all make a point of visit- 
ing me ; for my reputation is still higher abroad, 
than here. Several of the foreign ambassadors have 
assiduously cultivated my acquaintance, treating mc 
as one of their corps, partly, I believe, from the 
desire they have from time to time, of hearing some- 
thing of American affairs ; an object become of im- 
portance in foreign courts, who begin to hope Brit- 
ain's alarming power will be diminished by the 
defection of her colonies." * 

* " For dinner parties Franklin was in such demand that, during 
the London season, he sometimes dined out six days in the week for 
several weeks together. He also confesses that occasionally he drank 
more wine than became a philosopher. It would indeed hav« been 
extremely difficult to avoid it, in that soaking age, when a man s 
force was reckoned by the number of bottles he could empty." — Par- 
ton's Life of Franklin, vol. i, p. 540. 

As an illustration of the state of the times, I give the following 
verse from one of the songs which Franklin wrote, and which he <ras 
accustomed to sing with great applause. At the meetings or clw 
Jan to, all the club joined in the chorus, 

** Fair Venus calls ; her voice obey 
In beauty's arms spend night and day. 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 249 

In the latter part of the year 1772, Franklin, in 
his ever courteous, but decisive language, was con-, 
versing with an influential member of Parliament, 
respecting the violent proceedings of the ministry, 
in quartering troops upon the citizens of Boston. 
The member, in reply, said, 

" You are deceived in supposing these measures 
to originate with the ministry. The sending out 
of the troops, and all the hostile measures, of which 
you complain, have not only been suggested, but 
solicited, by prominent men of your own country. 
They have urged that troops should be sent, and 
that fleets should enter your harbors, declaring that 
in no other way, than by this menace of power, can 
the turbulent Americans be brought to see their 
guilt and danger, and return to obedience." 

Franklin expressed his doubts of this statement. 
" I will bring you proof," the gentleman replied. A 

The joys of love all joys excel, 
And loving's certainly doing well. 

Chorus. 
Oh ! no ! 
Not so ! 

For honest souls still know 
Friends and the bottle still bear the bell." 

•* It is well," Mr. Parton writes, " for us, in these days, to con- 
sider the spectacle of this large, robust soul, sporting in this simple, 
homely way. This superb Franklin of ours, who spent some evenings 
in mere jollity, passed nearlv all his days in labor most fruitful of 
benefit io his country." — Life of Franklin^ vol i, p. 262. 
II* 



250 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

few days after, he visited Franklin, and brought with 
him a packet of letters, written by persons of high 
official station in the colonies, and native born 
Americans. The signatures of these letters were 
effaced ; but the letters themselves were presented, 
and Franklin was confidentially informed of their 
writers. They were addressed to Mr. William 
Whately, an influential member of Parliament, who 
had recently died. 

Franklin read them with astonishment and indig- 
nation. He found the representation of the gentle- 
man entirely true. Six of the letters were written 
by Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts. 
He was a native of the colony he governed, a grad- 
uate of Harvard, and in his religious position a Puri- 
tan. Four were written by Andrew Oliver, Lieuten- 
ant-governor, and also a native of Massachusetts. 

The rest were written by custom-house officers 
and other servants of the Crown. The openly avowed 
design of these letters was, that they should be ex- 
hibited to the Ministry, to excite them to prompt, 
vigorous and hostile measures. They teemed with 
misrepresentations, and often with downright false- 
hoods. The perusal of these infamous productions 
elicited from Franklin first a burst of indignation. 
The second effect was greatly to mitigate his resent- 
ment against the British government. The ministry, 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 25 1 

it seemed, were acting in accordance with solicita- 
tions received from Americans, native born, and 
occupying the highest posts of honor and influence. 

The gentleman who obtained these letters and 
showed them to Franklin, was very unwilling to 
have his agency in the affair made public. After 
much solicitation, he consented to have Franklin 
send the letters to America, though he would not 
give permission to have any copies taken. It was his 
hope, that the letters would calm the rising animos- 
ity in America, by showing that the British ministry 
was pursuing a course of menace, which many of 
the most distinguished Americans declared to be es- 
sential, to save the country from anarchy and ruin. 
Franklin's object was to cause these traitorous office- 
holders to be ejected from their positions of influ- 
ence, that others, more patriotic, might occupy the 
stations which they disgraced. 

On the 2d of December, 1772, Franklin inclosed 
the letters in an official package, directed to Thomas 
Gushing. He wrote, 

" I am not at liberty to make the letters public. 
[ can only allow them to be seen by yourself, by the 
other gentlemen of the Committee of Correspond- 
ence, by Messrs. Bowdoin and Pitts of the Council^ 
and Drs. Chauncy, Cooper, and Winthrop, and a few 
such other gentlemen as you may think fit to show 



252 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

them to. After being some months in your posses- 
sion, you are requested to return them to me." 

The reading of the letters created intense anger 
and disgust. John Adams, after perusing them, re- 
corded in his diary, alluding to Hutchinson, " Cool, 
thinking deliberate villain, malicious and vindictive." 
He carried the documents around to read to all his 
male and female friends, and was not sparing in his 
vehement comments. 

Again he wrote, ** Bone of our bone ; born and 
educated among us ! Mr. Hancock is deeply affected : 
is determined, in conjunction with Major Hawley, to 
watch the vile serpent, and his deputy, Brattle. The 
subtlety of this serpent is equal to that of the old 
one." 

For two months the letters were privately yet 
extensively circulated. Hutchinson himself soon 
found out the storm which was gathering against 
him. The hand-writing of all the writers was known. 
In June, the Massachusetts Assembly met. In 
secret session the letters were read. Soon some 
copies were printed. It was said that some one had 
obtained, from England, copies of the letters from 
which the printed impressions were taken. But the 
mystery of their publication was never solved. 

The Assembly sent a petition to the king of 
England, imploring that Thomas Hutchinson and An- 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 253 

drew Oliver, should be removed from their posts, and 
that such good men as the king might select, should 
be placed in their stead. The petition, eminently 
respectful, but drawn up in very forcible language, 
expressive of the ruinous consequences caused by the 
measures which these officials had recommended, 
was transmitted to Franklin, the latter part of the 
summer of 1773. He immediately forwarded it to 
Lord Dartmouth. With it he sent a very polite and 
conciliatory letter, in which he declared, that the 
Americans were very desirous of being on good 
terms with the mother country, that their resent- 
ment against the government was greatly abated, by 
finding that Americans had urged the obnoxious 
measures which had been adopted ; and that the 
present was a very favorable time to introduce cor- 
dial, friendly relations between the king and the 
colonists. 

Lord Dartmouth returned a very polite reply, laid 
the all-important petition aside, and for five months 
never alluded to it, by word or letter. In the mean- 
time, some of the printed copies reached London. 
The tories thought that perhaps the long sought 
opportunity had come when they might pounce upon 
Franklin, and at least greatly impair his influence. 
Franklin had nothing to conceal. He had received 
the letters from a friend, who authorized him to 



254 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

send them to America, that their contents might be 
made known there. 

In all this he had done absolutely nothing, which 
ary one could pronounce to be wrong. But the 
Court, being determined to stir up strife, began to 
demand who it was that had obtained and delivered 
up the letters. Franklin was absent from London. 
He soon heard tidings of the great commotion that 
was excited, and that two gentlemen, who had noth- 
ing to do with the matter, were each accused of hav- 
ing dishonorably obtained the letters. This led to a 
duel. Franklin immediately wrote, 

" I think it incumbent for me to declare that I 
alone am the person who obtained and transmitted 
to Boston, the letters in question." 

The Court decided to summon Franklin to meet 
the " Committee for Plantation Affairs," to explain 
the reasons for the petition against Hutchinson and 
Oliver. To the surprise of Franklin, it appeared 
that they were organizing quite a formidable trial ; 
and very able counsel was appointed to defend the 
culprits. 

Thus Franklin, who simply presented the pe- 
tition of the Assembly, was forced into the obnoxious 
position of a prosecutor. The array against him 
was so strong, that it became necessary for him also 
to have counsel. It was manifest to all the friends 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 255 

of Franklin, that the British Court was rousing all its 
energies to crush him. 

The meeting was held on the nth of January, 
1773. Four of the Cabinet ministers were present, 
and several Lords of the Privy Council. They 
addressed Franklin as a culprit, who had brought 
slanderous charges against his majesty's faithful 
officers in the colonies. He was treated not only 
with disrespect but with absolute insolence. But 
nothing could disturb his equanimity. Not for one 
moment did he lose serenity of mind. 

There was an adjournment, to meet on the 29th 
of the month. In the meantime one of the court 
party, who had received many favors from Franklin, 
commenced a chancery suit against him, accusing 
him of stealing the letters, and being by trade a 
printer, of having secretly published them, and sold 
immense numbers, the profits of which he had placed 
in his own pocket. All this Franklin denied on oath. 
The charge was so absurd, and so manifestly 
malignant, that his foes withdrew the suit. Frank- 
lin was however assured that the Court was clamor- 
ing for his punishment and disgrace. 

All London was agitated by the commotion 
which these extraordinary events created. At the 
appointed day, the Council again met. The assem- 
bly was held in a large apartment in the drawing- 



256 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

room style. At one end was the entrance door ; at 
the other the fire-place, with recesses on each side 
of the chimney. A broad table extended from the 
fire-place to the door. The Privy Council, thirty- 
five in number, sat at this table. They were invete- 
rate tories, resolved to bring the Americans down 
upon their knees, and, as a preliminary step, to 
inflict indelible disgrace upon Franklin. Lord 
North, the implacable Prime Minister was there. 
The Archbishop of Canterbury was present. As 
Franklin cast his eye along the line of these haughty 
nobles, he could not see the face of a friend. 

The remainder of the room was crowded with 
spectators. From them many a sympathizing glance 
fell upon him. Priestly and Burke gave him their 
silent but cordial sympathy. There were also quite 
a number of Americans and prominent members of 
the opposition, whose presence was a support to 
Franklin, during the ordeal through which he was 
to pass. He stood at the edge of the recess formed 
by the chimney, with one elbow resting upon the 
mantel, and his cheek upon his hand. He was 
motionless as a statue, and had composed his fea- 
tures into such calm and serene rigidity, that not 
the movement of a muscle could be detected. As 
usual, he was dressed simply, but with great ele- 
gance. A large flowing wig, with abundant curls. 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 257 

such as were used by elderly gentlemen at that day, 
covered his head. His costume, which was admira^ 
bly fitted to a form as perfect as Grecian sculptor 
ever chiseled, was of rich figured silk velvet. In all 
that room, there was not an individual, who in 
physical beauty, was the peer of Franklin. In all 
that room there was not another, who in intellect- 
ual greatness could have met the trial so grandly. 

It will be remembered that the Assembly of 
Massachusetts had petitioned 'for the removal of an 
obnoxious governor and lieutenant governor 
Franklin, as the agent in London of that colony, 
had presented the petition to the crown. He was 
now summoned to appear before the privy council, 
to bring forward and substantiate charges against 
these officers. The council had appointed a lawyei 
to defend Hutchinson and Oliver. His name was 
Wedderburn. He had already obtained celebrity 
for the savage skill with which he could browbeat a 
witness, and for his wonderful command of the 
vocabulary of vituperation and abuse. Before com- 
mencing the examination, he addressed the assem- 
bly in a long speech. After eulogizing Governor 
Hutchinson, as one of the best and most loyal of 
the officers of the crown, who merited the gratitude 
of king and court, he turned upon Franklin, and as- 
sailed him with a storm of vituperative epithets 



258 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

such as never before, and never since, has fallen upon 
the head of a man. The council were in sympathy 
with the speaker. Often his malignant thrusts 
would elicit from those lords a general shout of 
derisive laughter. 

Such was the treatment which one of the most 
illustrious and honored of American citizens received 
from the privy council of king George III, when 
he appeared before that council as a friendly am- 
bassador from his native land, seeking only concilia- 
tion and peace. 

Wedderburn accused Franklin of stealing pri- 
vate letters, of misrepresenting their contents, that 
he might excite hostility against the loyal officers 
of the king. He accused him of doing this that he 
might eject them from office, so as to obtain the 
positions for himself and his friends. Still more, he 
accused him of having in an unexampled spirit of 
meanness, availed himself of his skill as a printer, to 
publish these letters, and that he sold them far and 
wide, that he might enrich himself Charges better 
calculated to ruin a man, in the view of these proud 
lords, can scarcely be conceived. It is doubtful 
whether there were another man in the world, who 
could have received them so calmly, and in the end 
could have so magnificently triumphed over them. 

During all this really terrific assailment, Frank- 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 259 

lin stood with his head resting on his left hand, ap- 
parently unmoved. At the close, he declined 
answering any questions. The committee of the 
council reported on that sarne day, " the lords of 
the committee, do agree humbly to report as their 
opinion to your majesty, that the said petition is 
founded upon lesolutions, formed upon false and 
erroneous allegations, and that the same is false, 
vexatious and scandalous ; and calculated only for 
the seditious purposes of keeping up a spirit of 
clamor and discontent in said province." The king 
accepted the report, and acted accordingly. Frank- 
lin went home alone. We know not why his friends 
thus apparently deserted him. 

The next morning, which was Sunday, Priestly 
breakfasted at Franklin's table. He represents 
him as saying that he could not have borne the 
insults heaped upon him by the privy council, but 
for the consciousness, that he had done only that 
which was right. On Monday morning Franklin 
received a laconic letter from the Post-Master Gen- 
eral, informing him that the king had found it 
necessary to dismiss him from the office of deputy 
Post Master General in America. 

This outrage, inflicted by the privy council of 
Great Britain, upon a friendly ambassador from her 
colonies, who hac visited her court with the desire 



26o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

to promote union and harmony, was one of the 
most atrocious acts ever perpetrated by men above 
the rank of vagabonds in their drunken carousals. 
Franklin, in transmitting an account to Massachu- 
setts, writes in a noble strain : 

** What I feel on my own account, is half lost in 
what I feel for the public. When I see that all 
petitions and complaints of grievances, are so odi- 
ous to government, that even the mere pipe which 
conveys them, becomes obnoxious, I am at a loss to 
know how peace and union are to be maintained, 
and restored between the different parts of the em- 
pire. Grievances cannot be redressed, unless they 
are known. And they cannot be known, but 
through complaints and petitions. If these are 
deemed affronts, and the messengers punished as 
offenders, who will henceforth send petitions ? and 
who will deliver them ? " 

The speech of Wedderburn gave great delight 
to all the Tory party. It was derisively said, " that 
the lords of the council, went to their chamber, as 
to a bull-baiting, and hounded on the Solicitor Gen- 
eral with loud applause and laughter." Mr. Fox, 
writing of the assault said, ** All men tossed up 
their hats and clapped their hands, in boundless 
delight." 

When the tidings of the affair Veached America, 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT 261 

it added intensity to the animosity, then rapidly 
increasing, against the British government. The 
dismissal of Franklin from the post ofifice, was 
deemed equivalent to the seizure, by the crown, 
of that important branch of the government. None 
but the creatures of the Ministry were to be post- 
masters. Consequently patriotic Americans could 
no longer entrust their letters to the mail. Private 
arrangements were immediately made for the con- 
veyance of letters ; and with so much efficiency, 
that the general office, which had heretofore con- 
tributed fifteen thousand dollars annually to the 
public treasury, never after paid into it one farthing.* 

The spirit of the tories may be inferred from 
that of one of the most applauded and influential 
of their leaders. Dr. Samuel Johnson, who wrote 
the notorious " Taxation no Tyranny," said, 

** The Americans are a race of convicts. They 
ought to be thankful for any thing we can give 
them. I am willing to love all mankind except an 
American." Boswell in quoting one of his insane 

• It may be worthy of record, that Wedderbum became the hero 
of the clubs and the favorite of the tory party. Wealth and honors 
were lavished upon him. He rose to the dignity of an earl and 
lord chancellor, and yet we do not find, in any of the annals of those 
days, that he is spoken of otherwise than as a shsdlow, unprincipled 
man. When his death, after a few hours' illness, was announced to 
the king, he scornfully said, ' He has not left a worse man behind 
him." 



262 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

tirades writes, " His inflammable corruption, burst- 
ing into horrid fire, he breathed out threateningg 
and slaughter, calling them rascals, robbers, pirates, 
and exclaiming that he would burn and destroy 
them." 

It was a day of vicious indulgence, of dissipation 
in every form, when it was fashionable to be god- 
less, and to sneer at all the restraints of the Chris- 
tian religion. Volumes might be filled with ac- 
counts of the atrocities perpetrated by drunken 
lords at the gaming table and in midnight revel 
through the streets. Such men of influence and 
rank as Fox, Lord Derby, the Duke of Ancaster, 
inflamed with wine, could set the police at defiance. 
They were constantly engaged in orgies which 
would disgrace the most degraded wretches, in the 
vilest haunts of infamy in our cities. Instead of 
gambling for copper, they gambled for gold. Hor- 
ace Walpole testifies that at one of the most fashiona- 
ble clubs, at Almack's, they played only for rouleaux 
of two hundred and fifty dollars each. There were 
often fifty thousand dollars in specie on the gaming 
tables, around which these bloated inebriates were 
gathered. It is said that Lord Holland paid the 
gambling debts of his two sons to the amount of 
one hundred thousand dollars. 

The trade of the colonies had become of immense 



THE INTOLERANCE OF KING AND COURT. 263 

value to the mother country. It amounted to six 
and a half millions sterling a year. Philadelphia 
numbered forty thousand inhabitants. Charleston, 
South Carolina, had become one of the most beauti- 
ful and healthy cities in America. The harbor was 
crowded with shipping, the streets were lined with 
mansions of great architectural beauty. Gorgeous 
equipages were seen, almost rivaling the display in 
French and English capitals. But there were many 
Tories in Charleston, as malignant in their opposi- 
tion to the popular cause in America, as any of the 
aristocrats to be found in London. 

The unpardonable insult which Franklin had re- 
ceived, closed his official labors in London. His 
personal friends and the Opposition rallied more 
affectionately than ever around him. But he ceased 
to appear at court and was seldom present at the 
dinner-parties of the ministers. Still he was con- 
stantly and efficiently employed in behalf of his 
country. The leaders of the opposition were in con- 
stant conference with him. He wrote many pam- 
phlets and published articles in the journals, which 
exerted an extended and powerful influence. He 
wrote to his friends at home, in October, 1774, 

" My situation here is thought, by many, to be a 
little hazardous ; for if by some accident the troops 
and people of New England should come to blows^ 



264 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

I should probably be taken up ; the ministerial peo- 
ple, affecting everywhere to represent me as the 
cause of all the misunderstanding. And I have been 
frequently cautioned to secure all my papers, and by 
some advised to withdraw. But I venture to stay, 
in compliance with the wish of others, till the result 
of the Congress arrives, since they suppose my being 
here might, on that occasion, be of use And I con- 
fide in my innocence, that the worst that can happen 
to me will be an imprisonment upon suspicion ; 
though that is a thing I should much desire to avoid, 
as it may be expensive and vexatious, as well as 
dangerous to my health." 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Bloodhounds of War Unleashed, 

The mission of Josiah Quincy — Love of England by the AmerU- 
cans — Petition to the king — Sickness and death of Mrs. Frank- 
lin — Lord Chatham — His speech in favor of the colonists — Lord 
Howe — His interview with Franklin — Firmness of Franklin — 
His indignation — His mirth — Franklin's fable — He embarks for 
Philadelphia — Feeble condition of the colonies — England's ex- 
pressions of contempt — Franklin's reception at Philadelphia — 
His letter to Edmund Burke — Post office arrangements — Defec- 
tion and conduct of William Franklin — His arrest. 

Young Josiah Quincy, of Boston, one of the 
noblest of patriots, who was dying of consumption, 
visited London, with instructions to confer with 
Franklin upon the posture of affairs. He wrote 
home, in the most commendatory terms, of the zeal 
and sagacity with which Franklin was devoting him- 
self to the interests of his country. Tory spies were 
watching his every movement, and listening to 
catch every word which fell from his lips. Lord 
Hillsborough, in a debate in the House of Lords, 
said, 

" There are two men, walking in the streets ot 
London, who ought to be in Newgate or at Tyburn." 

12 



266 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



• 



The duke of Richmond, demanded theii names, 
saying that if such were the fact the ministry were 
severely to be blamed. Hillsborough declined to 
give their names ; but it was generally known that 
he referred to Dr. Franklin and Josiah Quincy. 

The policy of Franklin was clearly defined, and 
unchanging. He said virtually, to his countrymen, 
" Perform no political act against the government, 
utter no menace, and do no act of violence what- 
ever. But firmly and perseveringly unite in con- 
suming no English goods. There is nothing in this 
which any one will pronounce to be, in the slightest 
degree, illegal. The sudden and total loss of the 
trade with America, will, in one year, create such a 
clamor, from the capitalists and industrial classes of 
England, Ireland and Scotland, that the despotic 
government will be compelled to retrace its steps." 

Even at this time the Americans had no desire 
to break loose from the government of Great Brit- 
ain. England was emphatically their home. 
Englishmen were their brothers. In England their 
fathers were gathered to the grave. The Americans 
did not assume a new name. They still called them- 
selves Englishmen. They were proud to be mem- 
bers of the majestic kingdom, which then stood at 
the head of the world. 

Congress met. Its members, perhaps without 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 2bJ 

exception, were yearning for reconciliation with the 
mother-country, and for sincere and cordial friend- 
ship. It was resolved to make another solemn 
appeal to the king, whom they had ever been accus- 
tomed to revere, and, in a fraternal spirit, to address 
their brethren, the people of England, whom they 
wished to regard with all the respect due to elder 
brothers. 

The intelligence of Christendom has applauded 
the dignity and the pathos of these documents. 
The appeal fell upon the profane, gambling, wine- 
bloated aristocrats of the court, as if it had been ad- 
dressed to the marble statuary in the British Museum. 
Nay worse. Those statues would have listened in 
respectful silence. No contemptuous laughter, and 
no oaths of menace, would have burst from theif 
marble lips. The following brief extract will show 
the spirit which pervaded these noble documents. 
It is one of the closing sentences of the address to 
the king : 

" Permit us then, most gracious sovereign, in the 
name of all your faithful people in America, with the 
utmost humility to implore you, for the honor of 
Almighty God, whose pure religion our enemies are 
undermining ; for the glory which can be advanced 
only by rendering your subjects happy and keeping 
them inited ; for the interests of your family, de- 



268 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

pending on an adherence to the principle thit en 
throned it ; for the safety and welfare of your king 
dom and dominions, threatened with unavoidabk 
dangers, and distresses ; that your majesty, as the 
loving father of your whole people, connected by 
the same bands of law, loyalty, faith and blood, 
though dwelling in various countries, will not suffer 
the transcendent relation, formed by these ties, to 
be further violated, in uncertain expectation of 
effects which, if attained, never can compensate for 
the calamities through which they must be gained.*' 

This petition was sent to Franklin, and the other 
colony agents, to be presented by them to the king 
They were instructed also to publish both the Peti- 
tion and the Address, in the newspapers, and to 
give them as wide a circulation as possible. 

Dr. Franklin, with two other agents, Arthur Lee 
and Mr. BoUan, presented to Lord Dartmouth the 
petition to be handed by him to the king. They 
were soon informed that the king received it gra- 
ciously, and would submit the consideration of it to 
Parliament. It was thought not respectful to the 
king to publish it before he had presented it to that 
body. But as usual, the infatuation of both king and 
court was such, that everything that came from the 
Americans was treated with neglect, if not with con- 
tempt. The all-important petition was buried in a 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 26g 

pile of documents upon all conceivable subjects, and 
not one word was said to commend it to the consid- 
eration of either house. For three days it remained 
unnoticed. Dr. Franklin, then, with his two com* 
panions, solicited permission to be heard at the bar 
of the house. Their request was refused. This 
brought the question into debate. 

The House of Commons was at that time but a 
reflected image of the House of Lords. It was com- 
posed almost exclusively, of the younger sons of the 
nobles, and such other obsequious servants of the 
aristocracy, as they, with their vast wealth and patron- 
age, saw fit to have elected. There was an immense 
tory majority in the House. They assailed the peti 
tion with vulgarity of abuse, which could scarcely 
be exceeded ; and then dismissed it from further 
consideration. Noble lords made themselves merry 
in depicting the alacrity with which a whole army 
of Americans would disperse ac the very sound of 
a British cannon. 

While these disastrous events were taking place 
in England — events, sure to usher in a cruel and 
bloody war, bearing on its wings terror and conflagra- 
tion, tears and blood, a domestic tragedy was tak- 
ing place in the far distant home of Franklin on the 
banks of the Delaware. Mrs. Franklin had been 
separated from her husband for nearly ten years. 



2/0 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

She was a cheerful, motherly woman, ever blessing 
her home with smiles and with kindly won Is ; and 
in the society of her daughter and her grandchildren, 
she found a constant joy. The lapse of three-score 
years and ten, had not brought their usual infirmi- 
ties. Though yearning intensely for the return of 
her husband, she did not allow the separation oeri 
ously to mar her happiness. Every spring she. was 
confident that he would return the next autumn, 
and then bore her disappointment bravely in the 
assurance that she should see him the coming 
spring. 

In December, 1774, she was suddenly stricken 
down by a paralytic stroke. Five days of uncon- 
scious slumber passed away, when she fell into that 
deep and dreamless sleep, which has no earthly wak- 
ing. Her funeral was attende d by a large concourse 
of citizens, with every testimonial of respect. Some 
of Franklin's oldest friends bore the coflfin to the 
churchyard, where the remains of the affectionate 
wife and mother who had so nobly fulfilled life's 
duties, were placed by the side of her father, her 
mother, and her infant son. 

Feelingly does Mr. Parton write, " It is mourn- 
ful to think that for so many years, she should have 
been deprived of her husband's society. The very 
qualities which made her so good a wife, ren 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 2/1 

dered it possible for him to remain absent rom 
his affairs." 

Franklin, all unconscious of the calamity which 
had darkened his home, and weary of the conflict 
with the British court, was eagerly making prepara- 
tions to return to Philadelphia. 

The aged, illustrious, eloquent Earl of Chatham, 
one of the noblest of England's all grasping and 
ambitious sons, sought an interview with Franklin. 
He utterly condemned the policy of the British cab- 
inet. His sympathies were, not only from princi- 
ples of policy, but from convictions of justice, cor- 
dially with the Americans. He felt sure that unless 
the court should retrace its steps, war would ensue, 
and American Independence would follow, and that 
England, with the loss of her colonies, would find 
mercantile impoverishment and political weakness. 
In the course of conversation, he implied that 
America might be even then, contemplating inde- 
pendence Franklin, in his account of the interview 
writes, 

" I assured him that having more than once trav- 
eled almost from one end of the continent to the 
other, and kept a great variety of company, eating, 
drinking and conversing with them freely, I had 
never heard in any conversation from any person, 
drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for a 



2/2 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

separation, or a hint that such a thing would be ad* 
vantageous to America." 

In a subsequent interview, the Earl of Chatham, 
alluding to the conduct of Congress, in drawing up 
the petition and address, said, 

" They have acted with so much temper, mode- 
ration and wisdom, that I think it the most honora- 
ble assembly of statesmen since those of the Greeks 
and Romans, of the most virtuous times." 

In a subsequent interview. Dr. Franklin ex- 
pressed, to the earl, his apprehension that the con- 
tinuance of the British army in Boston, which was 
the source of constant irritation to the people 
might eventually lead to a quarrel, perhaps between 
a drunken porter and a soldier, and that thus tumult 
and bloodshed might be introduced, leading to con- 
sequences which no one could foresee. 

Lord Chatham felt the force of these remarks, 
which soon received their striking illustration, in 
what was called the Boston Massacre. He there- 
fore declared his intention of repairing to the House 
of Lords, to introduce a resolve for the imme- 
diate withdrawal of the troops from Boston. The 
tidings were soon noised abroad that the eloquent 
earl, then probably the most illustrious man in Eng- 
land, was to make a speech in favor of America, 
The eventful day arrived. The hall was crowded 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 273 

Dr. Franklin had a special invitation from the eail 
to be present. The friends ©f America were there, few 
in numbers, and the enemies in all their strength. 

Lord Chatham made a speech, which in logical 
power and glowing eloquence, has perhaps never 
been surpassed. Franklin had impressed him with 
the conviction that the determination of the Ameri- 
cans to defend their rights was such, that if, with 
fleet and army, the government were to ravage all 
the coast and burn all the cities, the Americans 
would retreat back into the forests, in the mainte- 
nance of their liberty. Full of this idea, Lord 
Chatham exclaimed, with prophetic power, 

" We shall be forced ultimately to retract. Let 
us retract while we can, not when we must. I say 
we must necessarily undo these violent oppressive 
acts. You will repeal them. I pledge myself for it. 
I stake my reputation on it. I will consent to be 
taken for an idiot, if they are not finally repealed." 

Franklin writes, " All availed no more than the 
whistling of the wind. The motion was rejected. 
Sixteen Scotch peers and twenty-four bishops, with 
all the lords in possession or expectation of places, 
when they vote together unanimously for ministe- 
rial measures, as they generally do, make a dead ma- 
jority, that renders all debate ridiculous in itself, 
since it can answer no end." 



274 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 
Though the speech produced no impression upon 

the obdurate House of Lords, it had a very power- 
ful effect upon the public mind. It was read in 
/ America, in collegiate halls, in the work-shop and 
/ at the farmer's fireside, with delight which cannot 
/ be described. A few days after the speech, Dr. 
Franklin, writing to Lord Stanljope, said, 

** Dr. Franklin is filled with admiration of that 
truly great man. He has seen, in the course of life, 
sometimes eloquence without wisdom, and often 
wisdom without eloquence ; in the present instance 
he sees both united, and both he thinks in the high- 
est degree possible." 

Slowly the ministry were awaking to the convic- 
tion that American affairs, if not settled, might yet 
cause them much trouble. In various underhand 
ways, they approached Franklin. It was generally 
understood that every man had his price ; that the 
influence of one man could be bought for a few 
hundred pounds ; that another would require a 
lucrative and honorable office. Though the reputa- 
tion of Franklin was such, that it was a delicate mat- 
ter to approach him with bribes, still some of them 
now commenced a course of flattery, endeavoring to 
secure his cooperation. It was thought that his 
influence with his countrymen was so great that they 
would accede to any terms he should recommend. 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 2;? 

Lord Howe called upon Franklin, and, in the 
name of Lord North and Lord Dartmouth, the two 
most influential members of the ministry, informed 
him that they sincerely sought reconciliation, and 
that they were prepared to listen favorably, to any 
reasonable propositions he might offer. Lord Howe 
was the friend of Franklin and of America. These 
unexpected and joyful tidings affected Franklin so 
deeply, that he could not conceal the tears which 
rolled down his cheeks." 

Lord Howe then added that he was instructed to 
say, that the service he would thus render both 
England and America, would be of priceless value, 
and that though the ministers could not think of 
influencing him by any selfish motives, he might ex- 
pect, in return, any reward which it was in the p owe f 
of government to bestow. "■ This," said Franklin, 
** was what the French vulgarly called spitting in the 
wupy 

But again there was a meeting of Parliament. 
Again it became evident that the ministry would 
accede to no terms, which did not secure the entire 
subjugation of America. Lord Chatham made a 
renewed attempt to conciliate. His propositions 
were rejected with scorn. In the meantime Dr. 
Franklin had presented some Hints, drawn up in the 
most liberal spirit of compromise, but which stiU 



27C BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

maintained the American principle, that the colo- 
nists could not be taxed at the pleasure of the court, 
without having any voice themselves in the amount 
which they were to pay. 

Soon after this, Mr. Barclay called upon Frank- 
lin in the name of the government, and after a long, 
and to Franklin, disgusting diplomatic harangue, 
ventured to say to him, that if he would only com- 
ply with the wishes of the ministry, he might expect 
almost any reward he could wish for. Even the im- 
perturbable spirit of Franklin was roused. He re- 
plied, 

'* The ministry, I am sure, would rather give me 
a place in a cart to Tyburn, than any other place 
whatever. I sincerely wish to be serviceable ; and I 
need no other inducement that I might be so." 

In another interview, which soon followed, it 
appeared that the government refused to concede a 
single point which the Americans deemed essential. 
They refused to withdraw the troops ; refused to 
allow the colonial governors to appoint the collect- 
ors of the customs ; persisted in building fortresses 
to hold the people in subjection ; and adhered to the 
claim of Parliament to legislate for the colonies. 
Franklin said, 

" While Parliament claims the power of altering 
our constitution at pleasure, there can be no agree- 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 2/7 

ment. We are rendered unsafe in every privilege, 
and are secure in nothing." 

Mr. Barclay insolently replied, ** It would be 
well for the Americans to come to an agreem.ent with 
the court of Great Britain. They ought not to for- 
get how easy a thing it will be for the British men-of- 
war to lay all their seaport towns in ashes." 

" I grew warm," writes Franklin ; ''said that the 
chief part of my little property consisted of houses in 
those towns ; that they might make bonfires o( them, 
whenever they pleased ; that the fear of losing them, 
vvould never alter my resolution to resist to the last, 
such claims of Parliament ; and that it behoved this, 
country to take care what mischief it did us; for 
that sooner or later it would certainly be obhged to- 
make good all damages, with interest." 

Still again these corrupt men, who are selling them- 
selves and buying others, approached Franklin with 
attempts to bribe him. They could not comprehend 
that any man could be above the reach of such hi- 
fluences. It was contemplated sending Lord Howe 
to America as a Commissioner. He applied to 
Franklin to go with him as friend, assistant or 
secretar)\ 

Lord Howe said to Franklin, that he could not 
think of undertaking the mission withoat him ; that 
if he effected any thing valuable, it must be owing* 



2/8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

to the advice Franklin would afford him ; and that 
he should make no scruple of giving him the full 
honor of it. He assured him that the ministry did 
not expect his assistance without a proper consider- 
ation ; that they wished to make generous and 
ample appointments for those who aided them, and 
also would give them the promise of subsequent 
more ample rewards. 

" And," said he, with marked emphasis, " that 
the ministry may have an opportunity of showing 
their good disposition toward yourself, will you give 
me leave, Mr. Franklin, to procure for you, pre- 
viously, some mark of it ; suppose the payment here, 
of the arrears of your salary as agent for New Eng- 
land, which, I understand, they have stopped for 
some time past." 

' It will be remembered that Lord Howe was sin- 
cerely the friend of America, and that he anxiously 
desired to see friendly relations restored. Franklin 
therefore restrained his displeasure, and courteously 
replied, 

" My Lord, I shall deem it a great honor to be, 
in any shape, joined with your lordship in so good 
a work. But if you hope service from any influence 
I may be supposed to have, drop all thoughts of 
procuring me ^ny previous favors from ministers. 
My accepting them would destroy the very influence 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED 2/9 

you propose to make use of. They would be con- 
sidered as so many bribes to betray the interests of 
my country. Only let me see the propositions and 
I shall not hesitate for a moment." 

Repeated interviews ensued, between Franklin 
and both the friends and the enemies of the Ameri- 
cans. There were interminable conferences. But 
the court was implacable in its resolve, to maintain 
a supreme and exclusive control over the colonies. 
Every hour of Franklin's time was engrossed. 
Merchants and manufacturers, tories and the oppo- 
sition, lords temporal, and lords spiritual, all called 
upon him with their several plans. There were 
many Americans in London, including a large num- 
ber of Quakers. These crowded the apartment of 
Franklin. The negotiations were terminated by a 
debate in the House of Lords, in which the Ameri- 
cans were assailed in the vilest language of insult 
and abuse which can be coined. Franklin was pres- 
ent. He writes, 

*' We were treated with the utmost contempt, as 
the lowest of mankind, and almost of a different 
species from the English of Britain. Particularly 
American honesty was abused by some of the lords, 
who asserted that we were all knaves, and wanted 
only, by this dispute, to avoid paying our debts." 

Franklin returned to his home, with feelings of 



28o BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

indignation, which his calm spirit had rarely before 

experienced. He resolved no longer to have any 

thing to do with the hostile governing poweis of 

1 England. He had loved the British empire. He 

\ felt proud of its renown, and that America was but 

1 part and parcel of its greatness. But there was no 

longer hope, that there could be any escape from 

the awful appeal to arms. Though that measure 

would be fraught with inconceivable woes for his 

countrymen, he was assured that they would never 

submit. They would now march to independence 

though the path led through scenes of conflagration, 

blood and unutterable woe. His experience placed 

him in advance of all his countrymen. 

Franklin immediately commenced packing his 
trunks. Astonishing, almost incredible as it may 
appear, the evidence seems conclusive that through 
all these trying scenes, Franklin was a cheerful, it is 
hardly too strong a word to use, a jovial man. It 
has been well said, that to be angry is to punish 
one's self for the sins of another. Our philosopher 
had no idea of making himself unhappy, because 
British lords behaved like knaves. He continued to 
be one of the most entertaining of companions. A 
cloudless sun seemed to shine wherever he moved* 
He made witty speeches. He wrote the most amus- 
ing articles for the journals, and the invariable 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 28 1 

gayety of his mind caused his society to be eagerly 
sought for. 

One evening he attended quite a brilliant party 
at a nobleman's house, who was a friend to America. 
The conversation chanced to turn upon Esop*s 
fables. It was said that that mine of illustration 
was exhausted. Franklin, after a moment's thought, 
remarked, that many new fables could be invented,, 
as instructive as any of those of Esop, Gay, or La 
Fontaine. Can you think of one now, asked a lord. 
" I think so," said Franklin, " if you will furnish me 
with pencil and paper," He immediately sat down^ 
surrounded by the gay assembly, and wrote, as rap- 
idly as his pencil could move, 

" THE EAGLE AND THE CAT." 

** Once upon a time an eagle, scaling round a 
farmer's barn, and espying a hare, darted down upon, 
him like a sunbeam, seized him in his claws, and 
remounted with him into the air. He soon found 
that he had a creature of more courage and strength 
than the hare ; for which he had mistaken a cat. 
The snarling and scrambling of his prey were very 
inconvenient. And what was worse, she had disen- 
gaged herself from his talons, grasped his body with 
her four limbs, so as to stop his breath, and seized 
fast hold of his throat, with her teeth. 



282 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" * Pray,' said the eagle, * let go your held, and I 
will release you.* 

*' ' Very fine,' said the cat. * But I have no fancy 
to fall from this height, and to be crushed to death. 
You have taken me up, and you shall stoop and let 
me down.' 

^' The eagle thought it necessary to stoop accord- 
ingly." 

This admirable fable was read to the company ; 
and, as all were in sympathy with America, it was 
received with great applause. Little, however, did 
any of them then imagine, how invincible was the 
animal the British government was about to clutch 
in its talons, supposing it to be a defenseless hare. 

Franklin spent his last day in London with Dr. 
Priestly. The Doctor bears glowing testimony to his 
admirable character. Many thought Dr. Franklin 
heartless, since, in view of all the horrors of a civil 
war, his hilarity was never interrupted. Priestly, 
alluding to this charge against Franklin, says, that 
they spent the day looking over the American 
papers, and extracting from them passages to be 
published in England. " In reading them," he 
writes, ** Franklin was frequently not able to pro- 
ceed for the tears literally running down his cheeks." 
Upon his departure, he surrendered his agency to 
Arthur Lee. It was the 2ist of March, 1775, when 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 283 

Franklin embarked at Portsmouth, in a Pennsyl 
vania packet. 

Franklin was apprehensive until the last mo- 
ment, that he would not be permitted to depart ; 
that the court, which had repeatedly denounced him 
as a traitor, would arrest him on some frivolous 
charge. On the voyage he wrote a minute narrative 
of his diplomatic career, occupying two hundred and 
fifty pages of foolscap. This important document 
was given to his son William Franklin, who was daily 
becoming a more inveterate tory, endeavoring to 
ingratiate himself into favor with the court, from 
which he had received the appointment of governor. 

Franklin also sent a copy to Mr. Jefferson, perhaps 
apprehensive that his son might not deal fairly with 
a document which so terribly condemned the British 
government. The Governor subsequently published 
the narrative. But there is reason to suppose that 
he suppressed those passages, which revealed most 
cleaily the atrocious conduct of the British cabinet, 
Jefferson wrote some years later, alluding to this 
document : 

" I remember that Lord North's answers were 
dry, unyielding, in the spirit of unconditional sub- 
mission, and betrayed an absolute indifference to 
the occurrence of a rupture. And he said to the 
mediators distinctly, at last, that a rebellion was not 



^84 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

4o be deprecated on the part of Great Britain ; thai 
the confiscations it would produce^ would provide 
for many of their friends'' 

The idea that the feeble Americans, scattered along 
a coast more than a thousand miles in extent, without 
a fortress, a vessel of war, or a regiment of regular 
troops, could withstand the fleets and armies of 
Great Britain, was never entertained for a moment. 
Indeed, as we now contemplate the fearful odds, it 
causes one's heart to throb, and we cannot but be 
amazed at the courage which our patriotic fathers 
displayed. 

It was a common boast in England, that one regi- 
ment of British regulars could march from Boston 
to Charleston, and sweep all opposition before them 
A band of ten wolves can put a flock of ten thou 
sand sheep to flight. It was quite a pleasant thought, 
to the haughty court, that one or two ships of war, 
and two or three regiments could be sent across the 
Atlantic^ seize and hang Washington, Franklin, 
Adams, Jefferson, and others of our leading pa- 
triots, and confiscate the property of hundreds of 
others, for the enrichment of the favorites of the 
crown. 

** There will be no fighting ; " these deluded men 
said, " it will be a mere holiday excursion. The 
turbulent and foolhardy Americans will be brought 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 28$ 

to their senses, and, like whipped spaniels, will fawn 
upon the hand which has chastised them." 

The voyage across the Atlantic occupied six 
weeks. In the evening twilight of the 5th of May, 
the ship dropped anchor in the Delaware, opposite 
Philadelphia. Franklin landed, and walked alone 
through the darkened streets towards his home. It 
is difficult to imagine the emotions with which his 
heart must have been agitated in that hour. Ten 
years had elapsed since he left his home. In the 
meantime his wife had reared another dwelling, in 
Market street, and there she had died. He had left 
his daughter Sarah, a child of twelve years. He was 
to find her a matron surrounded by her babes. 

Cordially Franklin was welcomed home. The 
whole country resounded with the praises he so 
richly merited. The morning after his arrival he 
was unanimously chosen by the Assembly, then in 
session, as a member of the Continental Congress, 
which was to meet on the loth of the month, in 
that city. Sixteen days before Franklin's arrival 
the memorable conflicts of Lexington and Concord 
had taken place. Probably never were men more 
astounded, than were the members of the British 
cabinet, in learning that the British regulars had 
been defeated, routed and put to precipitate flight 
by American farmers with their fowling-pieces. In 



286 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

this heroic conflict, whose echoes reverberated around 
the world, the Americans lost in killed and wounded 
eighty-three. The British lost two hundred and 
seventy-three. Franklin wrote to his friend Ed. 
mund Burke, 

** Gen. Gage's troops made a most vigorous re- 
treat — twenty miles in three hours — scarce to be 
paralleled in history. The feeble Americans, who 
pelted them all the way, could scarce keep up with 
them." 

On the loth of May Congress met. There were 
still two parties, one in favor of renewed attempts at 
conciliation, before drawing the sword and throwing 
away the scabbard ; the other felt that the powers 
of conciliation were exhausted, and that nothing now 
remained, but the arbitrament of war. 

George Washington was chosen, by the Assem- 
bly, Commander-in-Chief of the American forces. 
On the 17th of June the battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought. Mr. John Dickinson trembled in view of his 
great wealth. His wife entreated him to withdraw 
from the conflict. Piteously she urged the consider- 
ations, that he would be hung, his wife left a widow, 
and his children beggared and rendered infamous. 
He succeeded in passing a resolution in favor of a 
second petition to the king, which he drew up, and 
which the tory Governor Richard Penn was to pre 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 28/ 

sent. John Adams, who was weary of having his 
country continue in the attitude of a suppliant 
kneeling at the foot of the throne, opposed this 
petition, as a " measure of imbecility." 

One of the first acts of Congress was to organize a 
system for the safe conveyance of letters, which 
could no longer be trusted in the hands of the agents 
of the British Court. Franklin was appointed Post- 
master General. He had attained the age of sixty 
nine years. Notwithstanding his gravity of charac- 
ter and his great wisdom, he had unfortunately 
become an inveterate joker. He could not refrain 
from inserting, even in his most serious and earnest 
documents, some witticism, which men of the inten- 
sity of soul of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, 
felt to be out of place. Still the wisdom of his coun- 
sels invariably commanded respect. Upon learning 
of the burning of Charleston, he wrote to Dr. 
Priestly, * 

* " And here perhaps we have one of the reasons why Di. Frank- 
lin, who was universally confessed to be the ablest pen in America, 
was not always asked to write the great documents of the Revolution, 
He would have put a joke into the Declaration of Independence if 
it had fallen to him to write it. At this time he was a humorist of 
fifty years standing, and had become fixed in the habit of illustrating 
great truths by grotesque and familiar similes. His jokes, the circu- 
lating medit-m of Congress, were as helpful to the cause, as Jay's con- 
science or Adams' fire ; they restored good humor, and relieved th© 
tedium of delay, but were out of place in formal, exact and autbori 
tative papers." — Parton's Franklin, vol. 2. p. 85. 



288 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" England has begun to burn our seaport towns, 
secure, I suppose, that we shall never be able to 
return the outrage in kind. She may, doubtless, 
destroy them all. But if she wishes to recover our 
commerce, are these the probable means ? She 
must certainly be distracted ; for no tradesman, out 
of Bedlam, ever thought of increasing the number of 
his customers by knocking them in the head ; or of 
enabling them to pay their debts by burning their 
houses." 

One of Franklin's jokes, in Congress, is very 
characteristic of the man. It was urged that the 
Episcopal clergy should be directed to refrain from 
praying for the king. Franklin quenched the inju- 
dicious movement with a witticism. 

" The measure is quite unnecessary," said he. 
" The Episcopal clergy, to my certain knowledge, 
have been constantly praying, these twenty years, 
that ' God would give to the king and council wis- 
dom.' And we all know that not the least notice 
has been taken of that prayer. So it's plain that 
those gentlemen have no interest in the court of 
Heaven." 

If we sow the wind we must reap the whirlwind. 
Terrible was the mortification and mental suffering 
which Franklin endured from the governor of New 
Jersey. He had lived down the prejudices con- 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 289 

nected with his birth and had become an influential 
and popular man. He, with increasing tenacity 
adhered to the British Government, and became 
even the malignant opponent of the Americans. He 
pronounced the idea of their successfully resisting 
the power of Great Britain, as utterly absurd. His 
measures became so atrocious, as to excite the indig- 
nation of the people of New Jersey. The Assembly 
finally arrested him and sent him, under guard, to 
Burlington. As he continued contumacious and 
menacing. Congress ordered him to be removed to 
Connecticut. The Constitutional Gazette of July 
1 3th, I 'J'j6y contains the following allusion to this affair : 

" Day before yesterday Governor Franklin, of 
New Jersey, passed through Hartford, on his way to 
Governor Trumbull. Mr. Franklin is a noted tory 
and ministerial tool, and has been exceedingly busy 
in perplexing the cause of liberty, and in serving 
the designs of the British king and his ministers. 

** He is son to Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the genius 
of the day, and the great patron of American liber- 
ty. If his excellency escapes the vengeance of the 
people, due to the enormity of his crimes, his re- 
demption will flow, not from his personal merit, but 
from the high esteem and veneration which the 
country entertains for his honored father." 

His family was left in deep affliction. Franklin 

^3 



290 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

sent them both sympathy and money. The captive^ 
governor resided at Middletown on parole. Here 
the infatuated man gathered around him a band of 
lories, many of whom were rich, and held convivial 
meetings exceedingly exasperating, when British 
armies were threatening the people with conflagra- 
tion and carnage. 

Inflamed with wine, these bacchanals sang trea- 
sonable songs, the whole company joining in chorus, 
with uproar which drew large groups around the 
house. The tories professed utterly to despise the 
patriots, and doubted not that their leaders would 
all soon be hung. One midnight the governor, 
with his boon companions, having indulged in the 
wildest of their orgies, sallied into the streets, with 
such uproar as to make night hideous. The watch 
found it needful to interfere. The drunken gov- 
ernor called one of them a damned villain and 
threatened to flog him. A report of these proceed- 
ings was sent to Congress. 

Soon after it was ascertained that he was an 
active agent for the British ministry. He was then 
confined in Litchfield jail, and deprived of pen, ink 
and paper. For two years he suffered this well- 
merited imprisonment. Mrs. governor FrankHn 
never saw her husband again. Grief-stricken, she 
fell sick, and died in New York in July, 1778. 



BLOODHOUNDS OF WAR UNLEASHED. 29I 

After an imprisonment of two years and four 
months, William Franklin was exchanged, and he 
took refuge within the British lines at New York. 
He received a pension from the British government, 
lived hilariously, and devoted his energies to a vig- 
orous prosecution of the war against his country- 
men. Franklin felt deeply this defection of his son. 
After the lapse of nine years he wrote, 

** Nothing has ever affected me with such keen 
sensations, as to find myself deserted in my old age 
by my only son ; and not only deserted but to find 
him taking up arms in a cause wherein my good 
fame, fortune and life were at stake." * 

* Upon the overthrow of the royalist cause, Governor Franklin 
with other tories went to England. Government gave him outright 
eighteen hundred pounds, and settled upon him a pension of eight 
hundred pounds a year. After the lapse of ten years he sought recon- 
ciliation with his father. He lived to the age of eighty-two and died 
in Loadon, in 1813. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Progress of the War, both of Diplomacy and the 

Sword. 

Letter of Henry Laurens — Franklin visits the army before Boston 
— Letter of Mrs. Adams — Burning of Falmouth — Franklin's 
journey to Montreal — The Declaration of Independence — Anec- 
dote of the Hatter — Framing the Constitution — Lord Howe's 
Declaration — Franklin's reply — The Conference — Encouraging 
letter from France — Franklin's embassy to France — The two 
parties in France — The voyage — The reception in France. 

The spirit which, almost to that hour, had ani- 
mated the people of America, — the most illustrious 
statesmen and common people, was attachment to 
Old England. Their intense desire to maintain 
friendly relations with the mother country, their 
** home," their revered and beloved home, may be 
inferred from the following extract from a letter 
which one of the noblest of South Carolinians Hon. 
Henry Laurens, wrote to his son John. It bears 
the date of 1776. He writes, alluding to the sepa- 
ration from England, then beginning to be con- 
templated : 

** I can not rejoice in the downfall of an old 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR 293 

friend, of a parent from whose nurturing breasts 1 
have drawn my support and strength. Every evil 
which befalls old England grieves me. Would to 
God she had listened, in time, to the cries of her 
children. If my own interests, if my own rights 
alone had been concerned, I would most freely have 
given the whole to the demands and disposal of her 
ministers, in preference to a separation. But the 
rights of posterity were involved in the question. 
I happened to stand as one of their representatives, 
and dared not betray their trust." 

Washington, Adams, Jay, would have made al- 
most any conceivable sacrifice of their personal 
interest, if they could have averted the calamity of 
a separation from the home of their ancestors. But 
the conduct of the British Cabinet was not only 
despotic, in the highest degree, but it was insolent 
and contemptuous beyond all endurance. It 
seemed to be generally assumed that a man, if born 
on the majestic continent of North America, in- 
stead of being born on their little island, must be an 
inferior being. They regarded Americans as slave- 
holders were accustomed to regard the negro. 
Almost every interview resolved itself into an insult. 
Courteous intercourse was impossible. Affection 
gave place to detestation. 

On the 13th of September, 1775, Congress 



294 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

assembled in Philadelphia. Lexington, Bunker 
Hill, and other hostile acts of our implacable foes, 
had thrown the whole country into the most 
intense agitation. Military companies were every 
where being organized. Musket manufactories and 
powder mills were reared. Ladies were busy scrap- 
ing lint, and preparing bandages. And what was 
the cause of all this commotion, which converted 
America, for seven years, into an Aceldama of 
blood and woe ? 

It was that haughty, insolent men in England, 
claimed the right to impose taxes, to whatever 
amount they pleased, upon their brother men in 
America. They did not blush to say, " It is the 
prerogative of us Englishmen to demand of you 
Americans such sums of money as we want. Un- 
less, like obsequious slaves, you pay the money, 
without murmuring, we will burn your cities and 
deluge your whole land in blood." 

Washington was assembling quite an army of 
American troops around Boston, holding the foe in 
close siege there. Franklin was sent, by Congress, 
as one of a committee of three, to confer with 
Washington upon raising and supplying the Ameri- 
can army. Amidst all these terrific excitements and 
perils this wonderful man could not refrain froin 
giving expression to his sense of the ludicrous.. 



PRCGRESS OF THE WAR. 295 

The day before leaving Philadelphia, he wrote to 
Dr. Priestly the following humorous summary of 
the result of the British operations thus far. 

** Britain at the expense of three millions, has 
killed one hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, 
which is twenty thousand pounds a head. And, at 
Bunker Hill, she gained a mile of ground, half of 
which she lost again by our taking post on Ploughed 
Hill. During the same time sixty thousand chil- 
dren have been born in America. From these data. 
Dr. Price's mathematical head will easily calculate 
the time and expense necessary to kill us all, and 
conquer our whole teiritory." 

It required a journey of thirteen days, for the 
Commissioners to pass from Philadelphia to Cam- 
bridge. On the 4th of October they reached the 
camp. Mrs. John Adams, who was equal to her 
husband in patriotism, in intellectual ability and in 
self-denial, writes, 

" I had the pleasure of dining with Dr. Franklin, 
and of admiring him whose character, from infancy, 
I had been taught to venerate. I found him social, 
but not talkative ; and when he spoke, something 
useful dropped from his tongue. He was grave, yet 
pleasant and affable. You know I make some pre- 
tensions to physiognomy, and I thought that I could 
read in his countenance, the virtues of his heart ; 



296 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and with that is blended every virtue of a Christian.*' 
The conference lasted four days, and resulted in 
the adoption of very important measures. While in 
the camp, news came of the burning of Portland, 
then Falmouth. It was a deed which would have 
disgraced American savages. The town was entirely 
defenceless. It held out no menace whatever to the 
foe. The cold blasts of a Maine winter were at hand. 
A British man-of-war entered the harbor, and giving 
but a few hours notice, that the sick and the dying 
might be removed, and that the women and children 
might escape from shot and shell, to the frozen fields, 
one hundred and thirty humble, peaceful homes were 
laid in ashes. The cruel flames consumed nearly all 
their household furniture, their clothing and the fru- 
gal food they had laid in store for their long and 
dreary winter. A few houses escaped the shells. 
Marines were landed to apply the torch to them 
that the destruction might be complete. 

There were several vessels in the harbor. The 
freezing, starving, homeless wives and daughters who 
had not strength to toil through the wilderness to 
seek distant cabins of refuge, might perhaps escape 
in them. To prevent this they were burned to the 
water's edge. It was an infernal deed. It struck to 
the very heart of America. Even now, after a lapse 
of one hundred years, no American can read an ac- 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 297 

count of this outrage without the flushed cheek and 
the moistened eye which indignation creates. Mrs. 
Adams wrote, 

** I could not join to-day in the petitions of our 
worthy pastor for a reconciliation between our no 
longer parent, but tyrant state, and these colonies. 
Let us separate. They are no longer worthy to be 
our brethren. Let us renounce them, and instead 
of supplications, as formerly for their prosperity and 
happiness, let us beseech the Almighty to blast their 
councils and bring to naught all their devices." 

Though Franklin was the sweetest tempered of 
men, he returned to Philadelphia with his spirit 
greatly embittered against the demoniac foes of his 
country. For some time no jokes escaped his lips 
or pen. In December, Arnold, then a patriot and a 
brave soldier, had made an unsuccessful attack upon 
Quebec. He had retired to Montreal. Franklin 
was again appointed one of these commissioners, to 
visit Arnold and advise respecting Canadian affairs. 

Most of the Canadians were Catholics. One of 
the commissioners was Charles Carroll of CaroUton. 
He had a brother John, a Catholic priest, a man of 
high culture, of irreproachable character and a sin- 
cere patriot. Hie was perfectly familiar with the 
French language. By the solicitation of Congress 
he was induced to accompany his brother on thi» 
13* 



298 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

mission. It was hoped that he would be able to ex- 
ert a powerful influence over the Canadian clergy, 
Franklii and John Carroll became intimate and lov- 
ing friends. It speaks well for both, that the free- 
thinking philosopher, and the Catholic priest could 
so recognize each other's virtues, as to forget their 
speculative differences in mutual regard. 

There was before the commissioners, a very la- 
borious journey of five hundred miles, much of it 
leading through an almost unexplored wilderness. 
It shows great zeal in Franklin, that at the age of 
seventy, he was willing to encounter such exposure. 

Late in March, the commissioners left Philadel- 
phia. In two days they reached New York. They 
found the place deserted of its inhabitants. It was 
held but by a few soldiers, as it was hourly expected 
that the British, from their fleet and batteries, would 
open upon it a terrific bombardment. How little 
can we imagine the sufferings which must ensue, 
when thousands of families are driven, in terror, 
from their homes, from all their means of support, 
to go they know not where, and to live they know 
not how. 

A few sad days were passed in the ruined town, 
and on the 2d of April the party embarked, at five 
in the afternoon, in a packet for Albany. At seven 
o'clock in the morning of the 4th day, after an 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 299 

eventful voyage, in which they narrowly escaped 
shipwreck from a gale in the Highlands, they landed 
at Albany, where they were hospitably entertained 
by General Schuyler. 

After a brief rest, on the 9th, they set out for 
Saratoga, which was distant about thirty-two miles. 
They were conveyed over an exceedingly rough 
road of rocks, and corduroy and mire, in a large, 
heavy, country wagon. From this place, Franklin 
wrote, 

** I begin to apprehend that I have undertaken a 
fatigue which, at my time of life, may prove too 
much for me." 

After a short tarry at the country seat of General 
Sullivan at Saratoga, the party moved on toward 
Lake George. In those northern latitudes the 
ground was still covered with snow, and the lake 
was filled with floating ice. Two days of very ex- 
hausting travel brought them to the southern shore 
of the beautiful but then dreary lake. Here they 
took a large boat, thirty-six feet long, and eight 
broad. It was what was called a bateau, which 
was flat-bottomed, and was but one foot in depth. 
There was one mast, and a blanket sail, which was 
available when the wind was directly aft. There was 
no cabin. A mere awning sheltered partially from 
wind and rain. 



300 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 
Thus they crept across the lake, through masses 

of ice, a distance of thirty-six miles, in thirty-six 

hours. There was a neck of land, four miles in 

breadth, which separated Lake George from Lake 

Champlain. The heavy boat, placed on wheels, was 

dragged across by six yoke of oxen. A delay of 

five days was thus caused, before they were ready to 

embark on the latter lake. The navigation of this 

small sheet of water, surrounded by the primeval 

forest, and with scarcely the cabin of a white man 

to be seen, must have been rorfiantic indeed. 

They sailed when the wind favored, and rowed 
when it was adverse. At night they ran ashore, 
built their camp fire, which illumined lake and for- 
est, boiled their coffee, cooked their viands, and, 
some under the awning, and some under the shelter 
of a hastily constructed camp, slept sweetly. The 
ice greatly impeded their progress. In three and a 
half days, they reached St. John's, near the upper 
end of the lake. The toilsome journey of another 
day, brought them to Montreal. None of the com- 
missioners were accustomed to thus roughing it. 
All were greatly exhausted. 

A council of war was convened. Canada was 
clearly lost to the Americans. It was at once de- 
cided that nothing remained but to withdraw the 
troops. Early in June, Franklin reached PhiladeL 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 3OI 

phia, from his toilsome journey. He had beeu 
absent about ten weeks. The doom of the proprie- 
tary government over Pennsylvania, was now sealed 
Congress had voted that all authority derived from 
the king of England, was extinct. A conference of 
delegates was appointed to organize a new govern- 
ment for the province. Franklin was, of course, 
one of these delegates. A committee had been 
appointed, by Congress, to draw up a Declaration 
of Independence. The committee consisted of 
Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Livingston, and Sher- 
man. 

The immortal document, as all the world knows, 
came from the pen of Jefferson. It was offered to 
Congress for acceptance. Many frivolous objec- 
tions were, of course, presented. One man thought 
this phrase a little too severe. Another thought 
that a little too lenient. Franklin sat by the side 
of Jefferson, as the adjnirable document was sub- 
jected to this assailment. Turning to him he said, 
in one of the most characteristic and popular of all 
his utterances, 

" When I was a journeyman printer, one of my 
companions, an apprenticed hatter, was about to 
open a shop for himself. His first concern was to 
have a handsome sign-board, with a proper inscrip- 
tion. He composed it in these words. 



302 BENJAMIN /BAJJiLl^, 

' John Thompson, Hitter, makes and sells Hats 
for ready Money." 

But he thought he would submit it to his friends 
for their amendments. The first he showed it to, 
thought the word hatter tautologous ; because fol- 
low :d by the words makes hats^ which showed that 
he A^as a hatter. It was struck out. The next ob- 
served that the word makes^ might as well be 
omitted, because his customers would not care who 
made the hats ; if good, and to their mind, they 
would buy, by v/homooever made. He struck it out. 
A third said he thought the words, for ready moneys 
were useless ; as it was not the custom of the place 
to sell on credit. Every one who purchased, ex- 
pected to pay. They were parted with. The 
inscriptioj now stood, 

" Jcrn Thompson sells hats." 

" r^ells hats," says his next friend. " Why no. 
body will expect you to give them away. What 
then is the use of that word ? " It was stricken out, 
and hats followed, the rather as there was one 
painted on the board. So his inscription was re- 
duced ultimately to John Thompson^ with the figure 
of a hat subjoined." 

It will be remembered the readiness with which 
Dr. Franklin, on the spur of the moment, threw 
off the admirable fable of the Eagle and the Hare. 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 305 

It is altogether probable that, in the inexhaustible 
resources of his genius, he improvised this anecdote 
to meet the exigencies of the occasion. 

When the Hessian troops, whom England had 
hired of a German prince, arrived, intelligent men 
in this country pitied rather than blamed those 
simple hearted peasants, who had no animosity 
whatever, against the Americans. They had been 
compelled, by their feudal lord, who was really their 
slave master, to leave their lowly homes on the 
Rhine, to unite with English regulars and painted 
savages, in burning the homes and butchering the 
people struggling for existence in the wilderness of 
the New World. 

Again the all availing pen of Franklin was called 
into requisition. By direction of Congress he drew 
up a friendly address to these unfortunate men, offer- 
ing every German, who would abandon the ignomini- 
ous service to which his prince had sold him, a tract 
of rich land sufficient for an ample farm. The address 
was translated into German. Various were the de- 
vices adopted, to give the document circulation in 
the Hessian camp. It doubtless exerted a powerful 
influence, in disarming these highly disciplined 
troops of all animosity. The effect was perhaps 
seen in the spectacle witnessed a few weeks after- 
wards, when nine hundred of these soldiers were led 



304 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

through the streets of Philadelphia, prisoners of war. 
It is not improbable that many of them were more 
than willing to throw down their arms. 

On the 20th of July, 1776, Franklin was chosen 
by the Convention, one of nine delegates to repre- 
sent Pennsylvania in the national Congress. One of 
the great difficulties to be surmounted, in a union 
of the States, was to give the great States, like New 
York and Pennsylvania, their own preponderance in 
the confederacy, while the minor states, like New 
Jersey and Delaware, should not be shorn of their 
influence. The difficulty was finally obviated by the 
present admirable arrangement, by which each Stat«, 
great or small, has two representatives in the Senate, 
while their representation in the House depends 
upon the number of the population. 

Franklin excelled in the art of " putting things." 
He silenced the demand of the smaller States, to be, 
in all respects, on an equality with the larger, by 
saying, 

** Let the smaller colonies give equal money and 
men, and then have an equal vote. But if they 
have an equal vote, without bearing equal burdens, 
a confederation, upon such iniquitous principles, will 
i\ever last long." 

The convention, to form a constitution for the 
State of Pennsylvania, met at Philadelphia on the 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 305 

f6th of July, 1776. Franklin was unanimously 
chosen President. No pen can describe the inten- 
sity of his labors. All appreciated his consummate 
wisdom, and yielded readily to his suggestions. 
Troops were hurrying to and fro. One hundred and 
twenty British war vessels were in New York har- 
bor. No one knew upon what seaport the thunder- 
bolts of this formidable armament would be hurled. 
The Americans had been defeated on Long Island 
in August, 1776, and had almost miraculously es- 
caped with their field pieces and stores, across the 
East River to New York. This brilliant retreat 
was deemed, by the Americans, almost equivalent to 
a victory. 

Lord Howe, the old friend of Franklin and a hu- 
mane and respected Englishman, who was sincerely 
desirous of peace with the Colonies, was appointed 
Admiral of the king's naval forces. He accepted the 
appointment, with the hope that, by the aid of Frank- 
lin, reconciliation might be effected. Still he was an 
Englishman and could not conceive that Americans 
had any rights which che English government was 
bound to respect. The degree of his infatuation 
may be inferred from the fact that, as soon as he 
reached our shores, he published a Declaiation, 
which he circulated far and wide, stating that if the 
Americans would only give up the conflict and re- 



306 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

turn to implicit submission, the British Government 
would forgive their sins, pardon the guilty ones, with 
a few exceptions, and receive them again to favor. 
The weak man seemed really to think, that this was 
an extraordinary act of clemency on the part of the 
English Court. 

The reply, which Franklin drew up, to the Dec- 
laration, was grand. And it was the more grand 
when we reflect that it was addressed to a man who 
was supported by an army, of we know not how 
many thousand British regulars, and by a fleet of 
one hundred and twenty war vessels, many of which 
were of gigantic armament. Admiral Howe had 
written a courteous private letter to Dr. Franklin, in 
which he enclosed the Declaration. Congress gave 
Franklin permission to reply. He wrote, 

" My lord ; the official despatches to which you 
refer me, contain nothing more than offers of par- 
don upon submission. Directing pardon to be 
offered to the colonies, who are the very parties 
injured, expresses indeed that opinion of our igno- 
rance, baseness, and insensibility which your unin- 
formed and proud nation has long been pleased to 
entertain of us. It is impossible that we should 
think of submission to a government that has, with 
the most wanton barbarity and cruelty, burnt our 
defenseless towns, in the midst of winter, excited 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 307 

the savages to massacre our farmers, and our slaves 
tc murder their masters, and is, even now, bringing 
foreign mercenaries to deluge our settlements with 
blood." 

I have not space to copy the remainder of thia 
admirable letter. It was delivered to Lord Howe 
on board his flag ship in New York harbor, ten days 
after its date. As he read it his countenance 
expressed surprise, and almost his only remark was, 
" My old friend has expressed himself very warmly.** 

A few weeks later this good natured but weak 
man paroled General Sullivan, who was a prisoner 
of war, and sent him to Philadelphia, with a mes- 
sage to Congress which Lord Howe cautiously de- 
clined to put upon paper. General Sullivan reduced 
the message to writing and presented it to Congress. 
It was in substance as follows : 

" The government of England cannot admit 
that Congress is a legitimate body, to be recognized 
by any diplomatic relations whatever. It is but a 
tumultous assembly of men who have treasonably 
conspired against their lawful sovereign. Still the 
government is willing that Lord Howe should con^ 
fer with some of the members of congress, as private 
gentlemen, to see if some terms of accommodation 
cannot be arranged.'* 

After much and earnest discussion, in which a 



308 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

great diversity of opinion prevailed, it was vot'id 
that General Sullivan should inform Admiral Howe, 
that a committee of three would be sent to ascer- 
tain whether he " has any authority to treat with 
persons^ authorized by Congress for that purpose." 

Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward 
Rutledge composed this committee. An antique 
house, nearly a hundred years old, formerly the 
abode of wealth and splendor, which stood in a 
green lawn, but a few rods from the beach on the 
western shore of Staten Island, was chosen as the 
place for the conference. A two days' journey con- 
veyed the committee to Amboy, opposite the 
house. Adams traveled on horseback : Franklin and 
Rutledge in a two wheel chaise. 

Admiral Howe sent a boat, under the protection 
of a flag of truce, with an officer, who stated that he 
was to be left behind as a hostage for their safe 
return. Promptly they declined manifesting any 
such distrust of the honor of Admiral Howe, and 
took the hostage back in the boat with them. 
The barge, propelled by lusty rowers, soon reached 
ihe Staten Island shore. A large apartment of the 
old stone house had been richly decorated with moss 
and branches in honor of the occasion. 

A regiment of Hessians was posted at that spot. 
The colonel drew them up in two lines and through 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 309 

this lane of soldiers the commissioners advanced 
from the beach to the house. When Admiral Howe 
saw that the officer he had sent as a hostage had 
been returned, he said, 

" Gentlemen, you pay me a high compliment." 
Cordially the kind-hearted admiral received his 
guests, and invited them to an ample collation of 
cold ham, tongues, mutton and wine. Mr. Henry 
Strachey, secretary of Lord Howe, wrote a very full 
report of the interview, which accords entirely with 
the narrative which John Adams presented to Con- 
gress. In as sincere and friendly words as humarv 
lips could pronounce, the Admiral assured the 
American gentlemen of his earnest desire to promote 
reconciliation between the colonists and the mother 
country. He alluded to the fact that in England he 
had been regarded as the friend of America, and to- 
the honor Massachusetts had conferred upon his 
family by rearing a monument to his brother, who 
had fallen at Ticonderoga. Franklin well knew that 
Howe was regarded as the friend of America. 

" I assure you, gentlemen," said Lord Howe, 
*' that I esteem that honor to my family, above 
all things inthis world. Such is my gratitude and 
affection to this country, on that account, that I feel 
for America as for a brother. And if America 
should fall, I should feel and lament it like the los» 



3IO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

of a brother." The reply of Franklin to these sin 
cere words, seems a little discourteous. Assuming 
an air of great indifference and confidence, as though 
the fall of America was an idea not to be thought 
of, he bowed, and with one of his blandest smiles 
said, ** I assure you, my lord, that we will do every- 
thing in our power to save your lordship from that 
mortification." 

The admiral was feeling too deeply for jokes 
He was wounded by the rebuke apparently con- 
tained in the reply of his old friend. But it must 
not be forgotten that Franklin, the sweetest tem- 
pered of men, had not yet recovered from the indig- 
nation caused by the barbarities inflicted by the 
British government upon the families of Falmouth. 
Every day was bringing tidings of the atrocities 
which England, through its savage allies, was per- 
petrating on the frontiers, burning the cabins of 
lonely farmers, and tomahawking and scalping wo- 
nren and children. And he was constrained to look 
upon Lord Howe as the agent of that government, 
commissioned to bear to the patriots of America 
only the insulting messages, that the king and his 
ministers would graciously pardon them the crime 
of attempting to resist their despotism, if they would 
ask forgiveness, and in future submit uncomplain* 
ingly to the requirements of the crown. 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 31 1 

Thus, while the kind-hearted admiral, v/ith a 
bosom glowing with brotherly sympathy, was acting 
upon the assumption that the Americans should 
cherish undying emotions of gratitude to the king, 
that he was so ready to forgive their disobedieace to 
his commands, Franklin and his companions, found 
it difficult to restrain their emotions of indignation, 
in view of the truly diabolical course pursued by the 
British government. The court, in their judgment, 
merited the execrations not only of Americans but 
of all humanity. 

Lord Howe very emphatically wished the com- 
missioners to understand that he met them merely 
as private individuals, and that he could not, in the 
slightest degree, recognize any authority in Congress. 
Franklin coldly replied, 

" Your lordship may consider us in any view you 
may think proper. We, on our part, are at liberty 
to consider ourselves in our real character.** 

John Adams replied with warmth, characteristic 
of his impetuous nature, " Your lordship may con- 
sider me in what light you please. Indeed I should 
be willing to consider myself, for a few moments, in 
any character which would be agreeable to your 
lordship, except that of a British subject,^* 

As the conversation was continued, Franklin 
♦Aid, ** We have been deputed* by Congress, sim- 



312 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



• 



ply to inquire of your lordship what proposition 
you have to offer for the consideration of Congress* 
British troops have ravaged our country and burnt 
our towns. We cannot again be happy under the 
government of Great Britain. All former attach- 
ments are obliterated. America can never return 
to the domination of Great Britain." 

Mr. Adams added, *' My lord, it is not in our 
power to treat otherwise than as independent states. 
For my part, I avow my determination never to 
depart from the idea of independency'' 

Mr Rutledge gave emphasis to these decisive 
words by saying, " With regard to the people con- 
senting to come again under the English govern- 
ment, it is impossible. I can answer for South 
Carolina. The royal government there was very 
oppressive. At last we took the government into 
our own hands. The people are now settled, and 
happy, under that government. They would not 
now return to the king's government even if Con- 
gress should desire it." 

Here the conference ended, by Lord Howe's 
stating, that, as they insisted upon independencey 
no accommodation was possible. Lord Howe 
courteously accompanied the American gentlemen 
to the barge, and they were rowed over to the New 
Jersey shore. In the report they made to Congress 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 31^ 

they stated, that the commission of Lord Howe 
only conferred upon him authority to grant pardon 
to the Americans, with a few exceptions, upon their 
entire submission to the king. 

It required, in those days, a long time to cross 
the Atlantic. Seldom could an answer be obtained 
to a letter in less than four or five months. To the 
usual delays and periLs attached to the navigation 
of that stormy sea, there was now to be added the 
danger of capture from the swarm of British cruis- 
ers. Congress had several agents on the continent. 
But months passed away, during which no letters 
were received from them. This painful suspense 
was relieved, in September, 1776, by a long letter 
to Dr. Franklin, from a French gentleman, Dr. Du- 
bourg. He was one of the prominent philosophers- 
of Paris, and, by the request of Count du Buffon, 
had translated into French, Franklin's treatise upon 
electricity. 

This letter was very cautiously written. It cov- 
ered many sheets of paper. The all important 
substance of the letter was almost concealed from 
view by the mass of verbiage in which it was envel- 
oped. But a careful reading indicated that the 
French ministry and the nation were in sympathy 
with the Americans ; that while the ministry wished 
to avoid war with England they would gladly 

X4 



314 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

if it could be done secretly, send the Americana 
money and powder, cannon and muskets, and that 
many French generals of note were eager to join 
the American army, and confer upon it the benefit 
of their experience. 

This news sent a thrill of joy through hearts 
which recent reverses had rendered somewhat de- 
sponding. It was decided immediately to send an 
■embassy of highest character to France. Three 
were to be chosen by ballot. On the first ballot 
Dr. Franklin was unanimously elected. He was 
seventy years old. And yet probably there was not 
another man in America so well qualified to fill that 
•difficult, delicate and responsible post. Franklin, 
in the saloons of diplomacy, was fully the peer of 
Washington on the field of war. When the result 
of the ballot was announced Franklin turned to Dr. 
Rush, who was at his side, and said, 

** I am old and good for nothing. But as the store* 
keepers say of their remnants of cloth, * I am but a 
fag end, and you may have me for what you please.* " 

Thomas Jefferson, then thirty-three years of age, 
and as pure a patriot as ever lived, was next chosen. 
He was already renowned in France as the writer 
of the Declaration of Independence. Silas Deane, 
a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale, then 
one of the agents in Europe, was the third 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 3 1 3. 

It required no little courage to cross the ocean, 
swept by the fleets of Great Britain. Had Franklin 
or Jefferson fallen into the hands of the British 
government, it is certain that they would have suf- 
fered severe imprisonment ; it is by no means 
improbable that they would have been promptly 
hung as traitors. It was a noble sacrifice for coun- 
try which led Franklin, having numbered his three- 
score years and ten, to incur these perils.* 

Jefferson was compelled to decline the mission,, 
sis his wife, whom he loved with devotion rarely 
equalled, and perhaps never surpassed, was sick and 
dying. Arthur Lee, then in Europe, was elected in 
his stead. He was a querulous, ill-natured man,, 
ever in a broil. A more unsuitable man for the 
office could scarcely have been found. 

There were two parties in France who favored 
the Americans. One consisted of enthusiastic young 
men, who were enamored with the idea of republican 
liberty. They were weary of Bourbon despotism. 
The character of Louis XV., as vile a king as ever 
sat upon a throne, was loathsome to them. They 
had read Jefferson's " Declaration," with delight ; 

* In the year 1780, Mr. Henry Laurens, formerly President of 
Congress, was sent as ambassador to Holland. The ship was cap- 
tured off Newfoundland, after a chase of five hours. The unfortunate 
man was thrown into the Tower, where he was imprisoned fifteei* 
months, " where " he wrote to Mr. Burke, " I suffered under a degree of 
rigpr, almost if not altogether unexampled in modem British history." 



3l6 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

•and had engraven its immortal principles ipon theif 
hearts. The Marquis de Lafayette was perhaps the 
most prominent member of this party. 

France hated England. That haughty govern- 
ment had long been the most unpopular on the 
globe. England had made great conquests from 
France, and was rich, intelligent and powerful beyond 
any other nation. Prosperity had given her arro- 
gance, and she had placed her heel upon her humili- 
ated neighbors. There was not a court in Europe 
which would not have rejoiced to see England hum- 
bled. The despotic court of France, and the most 
haughty nobles, were ready to encounter any perils 
which held out a reasonable hope that England 
.might be weakened. Thus the sympathies of all 
France were united in favor of America. 

And now the hour had come. By aiding the 
Americans, who had boldly declared their indepen- 
dence, they might not only deprive England of those 
colonies whose trade was already invaluable to Eng- 
land, and which were rapidly increasing in popula- 
tion, wealth and power, but also they might awaken 
such gratitude in the bosoms of Americans, that 
the trade of the new nation would be mainly trans- 
ferred to France. 

Thus the court and the nobles, intent upon this 
object, did not hesitate to aia in the establishment 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 317 

of those principles of liberty, fraternity ard equality 
in America, which eventually whelmed in ruin the 
palaces and the castles of France. 

It was deemed important to conceal as long as 
possible, from the British government the sympathy 
and aid which France was about to manifest for the 
Americans. Arthur Lee reported that an agent of 
the French government had promised to send from 
Holland, two thousand pounds, worth of military 
stores. They were to be forwarded to one of the 
French West India islands, ostensibly for the service 
of those islands. The governor was, however, in- 
structed to surrender them to a secret agent of the 
American Congress. The plan failed. I have not 
space to record all the various stratagems which 
were devised to aid the Americans, while the move- 
ment was carefully concealed from the vigilant eyes 
of the English. 

Franklin, with nobility of soul which should com- 
mand the love of every American, as one of his last 
deeds before he left his country perhaps never to re- 
turn, collected all the money he could command, 
about twelve thousand dollars, and loaned it to the 
government, whose treasury was utterly impover- 
ished. In those dark days, even that small sum was 
of essential aid. In one of the last of Franklin's 
letters, before he sailed, he wrote. 



3l8 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

" As to our public affairs, I hope our people will 
keep up their courage. I have no doubt of their 
finally succeeding by the blessing of God ; nor have 
I any doubt that so good a cause will fail of that 
blessing. It is computed that we have already taken 
a million sterling from the enemy. They must soon 
be sick of their piratical project." 

Franklin embarked in the Reprisal, a rapid sail- 
ing sloop of war of sixteen guns. He took with him 
his grandson, William Temple Franklin, son of the 
Tory governor, then a very handsome boy of eigh- 
teen, and Benjamin Franklin Bache, eldest son of 
his daughter, a lad of seven years. William Temple 
Franklin adhered firmly to the political views of his 
grandfather. Dr. Franklin intended to place Benja- 
min in a school in Paris. 

Tory spies were watching every movement of 
Congress. This mission to Ho'land was kept a pro- 
found secret. Had the British government known 
that Benjamin Franklin was about to cross the 
ocean, almost every ship in the British navy would 
have been sent in chase of him. On the 26th of 
October, 1776, he left Philadelphia, every precaution 
having been adopted to keep his departure a secret. 
The vessel was at anchor at Marcus Hook, in the 
Delaware, three miles beyond Chester. 

Fierce gales drove them rapidly across the Atlan- 



I'ROGRESS or THE WAR. 319 

tic. Captain Wickes had received instructions to 
avoid fighting, ii possible. He was to devote all 
liis energies to transporting his precious passenger 
as rapidly as possible, from shore to shore. They 
were often chased by cruisers. The vessel was small, 
and Franklin, in his old age, was sadly cramped by 
his narrow accommodations. He says that of all his 
eight voyages this was the most distressing. When 
near the coast of France they captured an English 
brig, with a cargo of lumber and wine. On the 
afternoon of the same day, they took another brig, 
loaded with brandy and flax seed. England was al- 
most delirious with rage, in finding that the Amer- 
icans were bearing away their prizes from the 
channel itself, thus bidding proud defiance to those 
frigates and fortresses of Great Britain which had 
overawed the world. 

On the 29th of November the Reprisal cast 
anchor in Quiberon Bay. Franklin there obtained a 
post chaise to convey him to Nantes. He writes, 

" The carriage was a miserable one, with tired 
horses, the evening dark, scarce a traveller but our- 
selves on the road. And to make it more comforU 
able, the driver stopped near a wood we were to 
pass through, to tell us that a gang of eighteen 
robbers infested that wood, who, but two weeks ago. 



320 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

had robbed and murdered some travellers on that 
very spot." 

Though absolutely no one in Europe knew that 
Franklin was expected, his fame had preceded him. 
The scientists of France were eager to render him 
their homage. French statesmen had learned, at 
the Court of St. James, to respect his grandeur of 
character, and his diplomatic abilities. He was a 
very handsome man, with a genial smile, which won 
love at sight. The invariable remark of every one, 
who chanced to meet him for five minutes was, 
* What a delightful man." Franklin had none of 
the brusqueness which characterizes John Bull. He ■ 
was always a gentleman, scrupulously attentive to 
his rich, elegant, yet simple dress. He manifested 
his knowledge of human nature, in carefully preserv- i 
ing his national garb, — the old continental costume. , 
Thus wherever he appeared he attracted atten- 
tion. No man was ever more courteous. The 
French Court, at that time, was bound by the 
shackles of etiquette, to an almost inconceivable 
degree. But Franklin was never embarrassed. He 
needed no one to teach him etiquette. Instinct 
taught him what to do, so that, in the bearing of a 
well bred gentleman, he was a model man, even in the 
court where Louis XIV. and Louis XV. had reigned 
with omnipotent sway. The most beautiful duchess, 



PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 32 1 

radiant in her courtly costume, and glittering with 
jewels, felt proud of being seated on the sofa by the 
side of this true gentleman, whose dress, simple as it 
was, was in harmony with her own. The popular im- 
pression is entirely an erroneous one, that there was 
anything rustic, anything which reminded one of the 
work shop or the blouse y in the demeanor of Benjamin 
Franklin, as he moved, unembarrassed, in the highest 
circles of fashion then known in the world. 

Franklin was received to the hospitalities of a 
French gentleman of, wealth and distinction, by the 
name of Gruel. His elegant apartments were al- 
ways crowded with visitors, eager to manifest their 
respect for the trans-Atlantic philosopher. Horace 
Walpole, a warm friend of the Americans, wrote, 

** An account came that Dr. Franklin, at the age 
of 72, or 74, and, at the risk of his head, had bravely 
embarked, on board an American frigate, and, with 
two prizes taken on the way, had landed, at Nantes, 
in France, and was to be at Paris on the 14th, where 
the highest admiration and expectation of him were 
raised." 

Upon his arrival Mr. Deane exultingly wrote, 

** Here is the hero and philosopher, and patriot, 

all united in this celebrated American, who, at the 

age of seventy four, risks all dangers for his country/ 

14* 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Struggles of Diplomacy. 

..^ecdote of Gibbon — John Adams — Residence at Passy— Lafayette 
introduced — Cruise of the Reprisal — Paul Jones — Capture of 
Burgoyne — Alliance with France — Anecdote of the Cake — Ex- 
citement in England — Franklin's introduction to the king — Joy 
in America — Extraordinary letter of Count Wissenstein — The 
reply — Injustice to Paul Jones — French troops in America — 
Character of John Adams — Franklin's mature views of human 
nature — Anecdote of the Angel — Capture of Comwallis — Its 
effect in England — Prejudices of Mr. Jay — Testimony of Dr. 
Sparks — Jealousy of Franklin — Shrewd diplomatic act — The 
treaty signed. 

In the journey from Nantes to Paris, a curious 
incident occurred, which is well worth recording. 
It so admirably illustrates the character of two dis- 
tinguished men, as to bear internal evidence of its 
truthfulness. At one of the inns, at which Franklin 
stopped, he was informed that Mr. Gibbon, the 
illustrious author of the " Decline and Fall of the 
Roman Empire," was also tarrying. 

Mr. Gibbon was an Englishman. He was a deist, 
being in entire sympathy with Franklin in his views 
of Christianity. He was also a man of betters. Mr. 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 323 

Franklin addressed a very polite note to Mr. Gib- 
bon, sending his compliments, and soliciting the 
pleasure of spending the evening with him. Mr. 
Gibbon, who was never renowned for amiability of 
character, replied, in substance, we have not his 
exact words, 

** Notwithstanding my regard for Dr. Franklin, 
as a man and a philosopher, I cannot reconcile it 
with my duty to my king, to have any conversation 
with a revolted subject." 

Franklin responded to this by writing, " Though 
Mr. Gibbon's principles have compelled him to 
withhold the pleasure of his conversation. Dr. 
Franklin has still such a respect for the character of 
Mr. Gibbon, as a gentleman and a historian, that 
when, in the course of his writing the history of 
the "Decline and Fall of Empires," the decline 
and fall of the British Empire shall come to be his 
subject, as will probably soon be the case. Dr. Frank- 
lin would be happy to furnish him with ample ma- 
terials, which are in his possession." * 

♦ This anecdote has had a wide circulation in the newspapers. 
Mr. William Cobbett inserts it in his " Works," with the following 
comment, characteristic of the spirit of most of the higher class of 
Englishmen, in those days : 

" Whether this anecdote record a truth or not I shall not pretend 
to say. But it must be confessed, that the expressions imputed to the 
two personages were strictly in character. In Gibbon, we see the 
ikithful subject, and the man of candor and honor. In Franklin 



324 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Gibbon was a tory. He supported Lord Ncrth 
in all his measures. The government rewarded him 
with a pension of eight hundred pounds a year. 
This was equivalent to considerable more than four 
thousand dollars at the present time. Franklin 
was received, in Paris, by the whole population, 
court and canaille^ with enthusiasm which that ex- 
citable capital had rarely witnessed. The most 
humble of the population were familiar with the 
pithy sayings of Poor Richard. The savants admit- 
ted their obligations to him, for the solution of some 
of the most difficult problems of philosophy. The 
fashionable world were delighted with his urbanity ; 
and in his society found rare and unequalled pleas- 
ure. The republicans regarded him as the per- 
sonification of a free government ; and even the 
nobles and the ministry were cheered by the hope 
that, with his aid, haughty England could be weak- 
ened and humbled, and that thus a new era of 
commercial prosperity was about to dawn upon 
France. 

John Adams was not popular in Paris. He was 
a man of great abilities, of irreproachable character, 
and was animated by as pure principles of patriot- 
ism as ever glowed in a human bosom. But he was 

the treacherous and malicious "jld Zanga, of Boston. — Wofks oj 
William Cobbett. Vol. vii,p. 244. 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY 325 

a genuine Puritan, inheriting the virtues and the 
foibles of the best of that class. Though not want- 
ing in magnanimity, he could not fail from being 
disturbed, by the caresses with which Franklin was 
ever greeted, contrasted with the cold and respect- 
ful courtesy with which he was received. It was al- 
ways the same, in the Court, in the saloons, and on 
the Boulevards. In Mr. Adams' diary, written some 
years later, we find the following insertion, which, in 
some degree, reveals his feelings. He is recording 
a conversation with the French minister. 

" All religions," said Marbois, " are tolerated in 
America. The ambassadors have a right, in all 
the courts of Europe, to a chapel in their own way. 
But Mr. Franklin never had any." 

" No," said I laughing, " because Mr. Franklin 
has no — " 

I was going to say what I did not say, and will 
not say here. I stopped short, and laughed. 

" No," said M. Marbois. " Mr. Franklin adores 
only great Nature ; which has interested a great 
many people of both sexes in his favor." 

" Yes," said I laughing, " all the atheists, deists 
and libertines, as wc 11 as the philosophers and ladies 
are in his train." * 

The English lords were exasperated by the re- 

♦ Works of John Adams, Vol. Ill, p. 22a 



326 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

ception France had given Franklin. They fully 
comprehended its significance. France was in sym- 
pathy with the Americans, in their heroic endeavor 
to escape from the despotism of the British crown. 
Thus the traffic which had enriched England, would 
be transferred to France. 

Even the Earl of Chatham said, in one of the 
most eloquent of his speeches, 

" France, my lords, has insulted you. She has 
encouraged and sustained America. And whether 
America be wrong or right, the dignity of this coun- 
try ought to spurn at the officiousness of the FrencK 
interference. The ministers and ambassadors of 
those who are called rebels, are in Paris. In Parisi 
they transact the reciprocal business of America and 
France. Can there be a more mortifying insult? 
Can even our ministers sustain a more humiliating 
disgrace? Do they dare to resent it ? " 

Franklin was assailed in England, in innumerable 
pamphlets of abuse. The sin of his youth still pur- 
sued him. Many an envenomed arrow pierced his 
heart. * 

* This is a delicate subject, but it must not be ignored. Mr. 
Parton writes, — " One penny-a-liner informed the public that Dr. 
Franklin had a son, who, though illegitimate, was a much more hon- 
est man than his father. As to the mother of that son, nothing W8« 
known of her, except that her seducer let her die in the streets." 

There was no end to those attacks. They were attended by every 
exaggeration of malignity which hatred could engender. It is ceitain 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 327 

But it must not be forgotten that there were 
many of the noblest men in England, who were the 
warm friends of Franklin, and who cordially espoused 
the American cause. Among these were Fox, Burke, 
Rockingham, Shelburne. Chatham, Priestley and 
Price. 

Many beautiful villages surrounded Paris. One 
of the most lovely, embowered in foliage, was Passy. 
It is now included within the city walls. It was 
then but two miles from the centre of the city. A 
munificent friend of America, M. de Chaumont, in- 
vited Franklin to the hospitality of one of his sump- 
tuous mansions in that place. Franklin accepted 
the invitation, assuring him that, at the close of the 
war. Congress would insist upon granting him a tract 
of land, in recognition of his kindness to America in 
the hour of need. 

Early in the year 1777, Franklin took up his res- 
idence at Passy, and there he continued to reside 
while he remained in France. He lived liberally, 
had an ample retinue of servants, and entertained 
his guests with elegance. His annual expenditures 
were about thirteen thousand dollars. This sum 
would then purchase twice the amount of convenien- 
ces and luxuries which could be purchased by the 

that Franklin would have been saved from these woes could he, as a 
young man, have embraced the faith of the religion of Jesus, and de- 
veloped that faith in his practice." 



328 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

same sum at the present day. He had his own ser- 
vants, and commanded a handsome carriage with two 
horses. 

Mrs. Adams writes, " With seven servants, and 
hiring a charwoman upon occasion of company, we 
may possibly keep house. With less we should be 
hooted at as ridiculous, and could not entertain any 
company." 

Though Franklin took every thing by the smooth 
handle, he did not, on that account, intermit any in- 
tensity of labor to accomplish his purposes. There 
were then three American envoys in Paris, Franklin, 
Dcane, and Lee. Five days after the arrival of 
Franklin, they, on the 28th of December, 1777, held 
their first interview with the French Minister, Count 
de Vergennes. They were received with all that 
cordiality and courtesy which are marked character- 
istics of the French people. But still the commis- 
sioners were embarrassed. The prospects of Amer- 
ica were doubtful. General Burgoyne was on the 
eve of sailing for America with a formidable fleet, 
and an army of eight or ten thousand highly disci- 
plined troops. In the course of the conversation, the 
minister said that France was not yet ready to enter 
into open collision with England, and to declare war. 

" But," said he, " if a couple of milliofts of francs, 
to be repaid without interest after the war, will be of 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 329 

use to you, they are at your service. Only do not 
say that you had it from us/' 

This was indeed, under the doubtful circum- 
stances, a very generous offer. It was at this dark 
hour that the noble Lafayette decided to consecrate 
his fortune, and to peril his life, for the cause of Amer- 
ican freedom. It was proclaimed that Burgoyne's ex- 
pedition was fitted out to rouse the slaves to insurrec- 
tion, and to lay the mansions of the planters in ashes. 
Arthur Lee was very much alarmed. These splen- 
did estates were generally situated in romantic spots, 
upon the banks of the navigable rivers, where the 
dwellings, often quite magnificent, could easily be 
demolished by shot and shell thrown from any 
frigate. 

1 The Reprisal, Captain Wickes, was the first 
American vessel of war which ventured into Euro- 
pean waters. The channel swarmed with British 
vessels. The Reprisal took prize after prize, and 
conveyed them into Nantes. As France was not 
at war with England, Count de Vergennes was com- 
pelled to order the Reprisal, with her prizes, to leave 
the harbor. Captain Wickes took some of the 
Nantes merchants on board his vessel, and, just out- 
side the port, sold the prizes to them. The French 
merchants then returned, with their property, into 
the harbor. 



330 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Captain Wickes soon united with him the Lex- 
ington of fourteen guns, and a cutter, the Dolphin, 
of ten guns. With this little fleet the hero sailed 
completely around Ireland, capturing or destroying 
sixteen prizes. The British were astounded at this 
audacity. Merchants and under-writers were quite 
terror-stricken. They had never dreamed that the 
despised Americans could strike them any blows. 
And when, soon after, Paul Jones, one of the noblest 
of all naval heroes, appeared in their waters, it is not 
too much to say that consternation pervaded the 
coasts of both England and Ireland.* 

It requires many and aggravated wrongs to 
rouse a naturally amiable man to the highest pitch 
of indignation. But when thus roused, he is ready 
for any vigor of action. Franklin's blood was up. 
England was bribing slaves to murder their masters ; 
was rousing the savages to massacre the families of 
poor, hard-working frontiersmen ; was wantonly 
bombarding defenceless sea-ports, and with inhu- 
manity, rarely known in civilized warfare, was laying 
villages in ashes, consigning women and children to 
beggary and starvation. In the prison hulks of New 
York, our most illustrious men were in the endu- 
rance, as prisoners of war, of woes unsurpassed by 

• The wonderful achievements of this patriot are fully recorded 
ia one of the volumes of this series. 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 33 1 

Algerine barbarism. Many of our common sailors, 
England was compelling, by the terrors of the lash, 
to man her ships, and to fight their own country- 
men. Maddened by these atrocities, Mr. Franklin 
wrote to his English friend, David Hartley, a mem- 
ber of Parliament, a letter, which all the few friends 
of America in England, read with great satisfaction, 
and which must have produced a very powerful 
moral impression in France. It is too long to be 
inserted here. In conclusion he said to his friend, 

" In reviewing what I have written, I found too 
much warmth in it, and was about to strike out 
some parts. Yet I let them go, as it will afford you 
this one reflection, 

** * If a man naturally cool, and rendered still 
cooler by old age, is so warmed by our treatment of 
his country, how much must those people in general 
be exasperated against us. And why are we mak- 
ing inveterate enemies, by our barbarity, not only 
of the present inhabitants of a great country, but of 
their infinitely more numerous posterity ; who will> 
in future ages, detest the name of Englishman, a? 
much as the children in Holland now do those of 
Alva and Spaniard. " 

William Temple Franklin inherited the attrac- 
tions of person, and the fascination of manners, so 
conspicuous in his grandfather. He was a great 



332 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

favorite in the social circles of the gay metiopolis. 
Dark days came, with tidings of discomfiture, 
Franklin devoted twelve hours out of the twenty- 
four, to the arduous duties of his mission. PhiU 
adelphia fell. 

"Well, Doctor," said an Englishman in Paris, 
with the customary courtesy of his nation, ** Howe 
has taken Philadelphia." 

** I beg your pardon," Franklin replied, " Phila- 
delphia has taken Howe." 

The result proved that Franklin's joke was 
almost a reality. 

Burgoyne surrendered. His whole army was 
taken captive. Massachusetts immediately sent John 
Loring Austin to convey the rapturous tidings to 
Franklin. This great success would doubtless en- 
courage France to open action. No tongue can tell 
the emotions excited in the bosoms of Franklin, 
Lee and Deane, as Austin entered their presence at 
Passy, with the announcement, " General Burgoyne 
and his whole ar^ny are prisoners of war^ 

There were no shoutings, no rushing into each 
other's arms. But tears filled their eyes. They felt 
assured that France would come openly to their 
aid, and that the independence of their country was 
no longer doubtful. Silently they returned to 
Franklin's spacious apartment, where they spent the 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 333 

whole day in reading the enrapturing dispatches, 
and in preparing for immediate alliance with France. 
France made no attempt to conceal its joy. A 
treaty of alliance was soon formed. Nobly the 
Count de Vergennes said, 

** We wish to take no advantage of your situa- 
tion. We desire no terms which you may hereafter 
regret having made ; but would enter into arrange- 
ments of mutual interest, which may last as long as 
human institutions endure." 

England was now greatly alarmed from fear that 
the trade of the colonies might be transferred to 
France. Envoys were sent to Passy to offer the 
American ambassadors everything they had de- 
manded at the commencement of the conflict. 
But it was too late. America now demanded Inde- 
pendencCy and would accept nothing less. 

A large cake was one day sent to the amb;».'isa- 
dor's apartment, at Passy, with the inscription *' Le 
Digne Franklin," the worthy Franklin. Mr. Lee 
said, " Well, Doctor, we have to thank you for our 
accommodations, and to appropriate your present to 
our use." 

" Not at all," said Franklin. " This cake is for all 
the Commissioners. The P'rench, not being able to 
write good English, do not spell our names correctly. 
The meaning doubtless is Lee, Deane, Franklin." 



334 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

The memorable treaty was signed on the 5 th of 
February, 1778. It was stated that the object of 
the treaty was to establish the independence of the 
United States, and that neither party should con- 
clude either truce or peace with England, without 
the consent of the other. 

Tidings of the treaty, which for a short time was 
kept secret, had been whispered in England, caus- 
ing intense excitement. On the 17th of February, 
1778, the House of Parliament was crowded. Lord 
North, amid breathless silence, presented a " Con- 
ciliation Bill," granting everything which Frank- 
lin had demanded. Fox, who was in the Op- 
position, arose and announced the treaty. " The 
astonishment," writes Walpole, " was totally inde- 
scribable." 

Soon the fact, of the treaty of alliance, was form- 
ally announced in France. The American envoys 
were invited to an audience with the king. Frank- 
lin was richly dressed. His hair was carefully ar- 
ranged by a French perruquier. He wore an admira- 
bly fitting suit of plain, black, silk velvet. Ruffles of 
elaborate embroidery and snowy whiteness adorned 
his wrists and bosom. White silk stockings aided 
in displaying the perfect proportions of his frame. 
Large silver buckles were on his shoes. 

No one could accuse him of failing in due respect 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 33 S 

for the king, by appearing in his presence in slat- 
ternly dress. His costume was superb, and was such 
as was then worn, on important occasions, by Amer- 
ican gentlemen of the highest rank. The audience 
took place at Versailles, on the morning of the 20th 
of March. Each of the American envoys rode in 
his own carriage, attended by the usual retinue of 
servants. On the way they were cheered with the 
utmost enthusiasm by the crowd. The king, Louis 
XVI., received them with extreme courtesy, and the 
queen, Marie Antoinette, was marked in her atten- 
tions to Franklin. The British ambassador, Lord 
Stormont, was so enraged, that, regardless of all the 
claims of courtesy, he immediately returned to Eng- 
land, without even taking leave of the king. 

Who can describe the exultation, the rapture, 
the tears, with which these tidings were received by 
the patriots of America. On the 6th of May, George 
Washington drew up his little band at Valley Forge, 
to announce the great event, and to offer to God 
prayers and thanksgivings. The tone of the Eng« 
lish was immediately changed. They abandoned 
threats and tried the effect of entreaties. Several 
emissaries, from the government, approached Dr. 
Franklin, all bearing in substance the same message 
They said, 

' We cannot endure the thought that our beloved 



33^ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

• 

colonists should enter into alliance with our hered- 
itary natural enemy, France. Can you, who are 
Protestants, consent to unite with a nation of Ro- 
man Catholics? If you will remain firm in your 
adhesion to England, we will grant you all you ever 
wished for, and even more. But do not forsake 
your mother country to swell the pride and power 
of perfidious France." 

But all these efforts were unavailing. The col- 
onists began to despise England. They had no wish 
for war with their unnatural parent, and they knew 
that their independence was assured ; and that no 
efforts which England could possibly make, could 
now prevent it. All alike felt disposed to spurn the 
bribes which England so lavishly offered. 

A very extraordinary letter was sent to Dr. 
Franklin, which was signed, Charles de Wissenstein. 
Franklin, who was accustomed to sifting evidence, 
became satisfied that the message came from king 
George III. himself. The letter declared that the 
perfidious French would certainly deceive the Amer- 
icans with false promises, and defraud them. After 
making the most liberal offers of popular rights, if the 
Americans would continue to remain colonists under 
the British crown, the document presented the fol- 
lowing extraordinary promise to those American pa- 
triots whom England had denounced as traitors, and 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 337 

doomed to be hung. It was deemed a bribe which 
human virtue could not r>=*sist. 

" As it is unreasonable that their (the American 
patriots) services to their country should deprive 
them of those advantages which their talents would 
otherwise have gained them, the following persons 
shall have offices or pensions for life, at their option, 
namely, Franklin, Washington, Adams, Hancock, etc. 
In case his Majesty, or his successors, should ever 
create American peers, then those persons, or their 
descendants, shall be among the first created if they 
choose it." 

Franklin, after conference with his colleagues, 
replied to the letter. His soul was all on fire with 
the insults our country had received, and the wrongs 
she had endured. He wrote as if personally address- 
ing the king. We can only give the concluding 
paragraph. After stating that the independence of 
America was secured, that all attempts of England 
to prevent it would be impotent, and that conse- 
quently it was quite a matter of indifference to the 
Americans whether England acknowledged it of 
not, he wrote,* 

* In reference to the promises contained in the letter, Franklin 
referred to a book which it was said George III. had carefully studied, 
called Arcana Imperii. A prince, to appease a revolt, had promised 
mdemnity to the revolters. The question was submitted to the 



338 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" This proposition, of delivering ourselves bound 
and gagged, ready for hanging, without even a 
right to complain, and without a friend to be found 
afterward among all mankind, you would have us 
embrace upon the faith of an Act of Parliament. 
Good God ! an act of your Parliament. This de- 
monstrates that you do not yet know us ; and that 
you fancy that we do not know you. But it is not 
merely this flimsy faith that we are to act upon. 
You offer us hope, the hope of PLACES, PENSIONS 
and PEERAGES. 

" These, judging from yourselves, you think are 
motives irresistible. This offer to corrupt us, sir, is 
with me, your credential ; and convinces me that 
you are not a private volunteer in your application. 
It bears the stamp of British Court character. It is 
even the signature of your king. But think, for a 
moment, in what light it must be viewed in America. 

" By PLACES, you mean places among us ; for 
you take care, by a special article, to secure your 
own to yourselves. We must then pay the salaries 
in order to enrich ourselves with those places. But 
you will give us PENSlONa, probably to be paid too 

keepers of the king's conscience, whether he were bound to keep his 
promises. The reply was, 

•* No ! It was right to make the promises, because the ifvolt 
could not otherwise be suppressed. It <n'ould be wrong tokeepthenv 
because revolten :ught to be punished." 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 339 

out of your expected American revenue, and which 
none of us can accept without deserving, and per- 
haps obtaining, suspension. 

" Peerages ! Alas ! in our long observation of 
the vast servile majority of your peers, voting con- 
stantly for every measure proposed by a minister, 
however weak or wicked, leaves us small respect for 
that title. We consider it as a sort of tar-and- 
feather honor, or a mixture of foulness and folly, 
which every man among us, who should accept it 
from your king, would be obliged to renounce, or 
exchange for that confessed by the mobs of their 
own country, or wear it with everlasting infamy." * 

In the spring of 1778, Paul Jones entered upon 
his brilliant career, bidding defiance, with his infant 
fleet, to all the naval power of Great Britain, agita^ 
ting entire England with the terror of his name. 
Franklin was his affectionate friend, and, in all his 
many trials, he leaned upon Franklin for sympathy. 
So tremendously was he maligned by the English 
press, that American historians, unconsciously thus 
influenced, have never done him justice. As a 
patriot, and a noble man, he deserves to take rank 
with his friends, Washington and Franklin. 

In 1779, Lafayette, returning to France, from 
America, brought the news that Franklin was ap« 

* Sparks Franklin, vol. iii, p. 278. 



340 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

pointed by Congress as sole plenipotentiary of the 
new nation of the United States, to the gener- 
ous kingdom, which had acknowledged our inde- 
pendence, and whose fleets and armies were now 
united with ours. All France rejoiced. With 
great eclat the new ambassadors were presented to 
the king. 

No man of force of character can escape having 
enemies. Franklin had many and bitter ones. A 
cabal plotted the removal of his excellent grandson, 
William Temple Franklin. It gives us an insight 
to the heart of this venerable septuagenarian to 
read from his pen, 

*' It is enough that I have lost my son. Would 
they add my grandson. An old man of seventy, I 
undertook a winter voyage, at the command of 
Congress, with no other attendant to take care 
of me. I am continued here, in a foreign country, 
where, if I am sick, his filial attention comforts me. 
And if I die, I have a child to close my eyes and 
take care of my remains. His dutiful behavior 
toward me, and his diligence and fidelity in busi- 
ness, are both pleasing and useful to me. His con- 
duct, as my private secretary, has been unexception- 
able ; and I am confident the Congress will never 
think of separating us." 

Franklin's great endeavor now was to obtain 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 34A 

money. Without it we could have neither fleet not 
army. The treasury of France was empty, almost 
to bankruptcy. Never did he struggle against 
greater obstacles than during the next three years. 
It has been truly said, that Franklin, without in- 
tending it, helped to bleed the French monarchy to 
death; In addition to the employment of both 
army and navy, the French government conferred 
upon Congress, in gifts or loans, the sum of twenty- 
six million francs. 

^^The French troops were received in America 
with boundless enthusiasm. Their discipline was 
admirable. Their respect for the rights of property 
was such, that not a barn, orchard or hen-roost was 
robbed. 

John Adams was sent to join FrankHn, to aid 
him in framing terms of peace, whenever England 
should be disposed to make such advances. He 
was a man of great abilities, of irreproachable in- 
tegrity, but he had inherited, from his English 
ancestry, not only repulsive brusqueness, but also a 
prejudice against the French, which nothing could 
remove. His want of courtesy ; his unconcealed 
assumption that France was acting out of unmitiga- 
ted selfishness, and that consequently the Americans 
owed the French no debt of gratitude, often caused 
Franklin much embarrassment. This blunt man, at 



342 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

one time wrote so uncourteous, not to say insults 
ing a letter, to M. de Vergennes, that the French 
minister declined having any more correspondence 
with him. Both Franklin and Congress condemned 
the incivility of Mr. Adams. He only escaped a 
motion of censure from the full conviction of Con- 
gress of the purity of his patriotism, and of his 
intentions."^ 

Franklin had been requested to forward the cor- 
respondence to Congress. As in duty bound, he did 
so ; accompanying it with a magnanimous letter. 
Mr. Adams was very angry. Every impartial reader 
will admit that, in this embarrassing affair, Franklin 
conducted with delicacy and discretion. The Brit- 
ish troops in America were still conducting like sav- 
ages. Congress requested Franklin to prepare a 
school-book, with thirty-five prints, each depicting 
one or more of the acts of English brutality. The 
object was to impress the minds of children with a 
deep sense of the insatiable and bloody malice with 
which the English had pursued the Americans. 
The plan was never executed. 

* Mr. Jefferson, after an intimacy of seven months with John 
Adams, in Paris, wrote of him : " He is vain, irritable, and a bad 
calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which gov- 
ern men. This is all the ill which can possibly be said of him. Ho 
is as disinterested as the Being who made him." 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 343 

In the year 1781, Franklin, then seventy-five 
years of age, and having been engaged in public ser- 
vice for fifty years, wrote to Congress, begging per-^^A.^ 
mission to retire from his responsible office. Con- ' 
giess could not spare his services. They gave him 
an additional appointment. He was commissioned 
to unite with Adams and Jay. in those negotiations 
for peace which, it was evident, must soon take 
place. 

Franklin loved the French, he could smile at 
their foibles, in dressing their hair so that they could 
not wear a hat, but were compelled to carry it 
under their arms ; also in filling their noses with 
tobacco. " These," said he, " are mere follies. 
There is nothing wanting, in the character of a 
Frenchman, that belongs to that of an agreeable 
and worthy man.'* 

It may perhaps be mentioned, as a defect in the 
character of Franklin, that when in France he could 
see nothing but the beautiful. His eye was turned 
from every revolting spectacle. In the society of 
elegantly dressed, highly educated, refined French 
ladies, — at dinner parties, glittering with gold and 
silver plate, — in social intercourse with men whose 
philosophical attainments were of the highest order, 
and whose politeness of speech and bearing ren- 
dered them delightful companions, Franklin found 



344 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

his time and thoughts engrossed. In all his volumi- 
nous writings we find no allusion to those tremen- 
dous wrongs, which Louis XIV. and Louis XV. 
had entailed upon the people, — wrongs which soor 
convulsed society with the volcanic throes of the 
French revolution. 

Jefferson, who succeeded Franklin, was cast in a 
different mould. He saw and fully comprehended 
the misery under which the millions of the French 
peasantry were groaning. And this led him to the 
conviction, that no people could be safe, unless the 
government were placed in their own hands. 

Still Franklin, like his brother deists, Hume and 
Voltaire, seeing how impotent were all the motives 
they could urge to make man virtuous, became 
thoroughly disgusted with human nature. He even 
went beyond Paul in his description of the hopeless 
depravity of man. The idea of reclaiming him by 
his philosophy was abandoned entirely. And yet 
he was not prepared to embrace that gospel, which 
the experience of ages has proved to be the ** wis- 
dom of God and the power of God unto salvation. ' 

*' He enlarges," writes Mr Parton, " upon this 
theme, in his most delightful manner, in another 
letter to Dr. Priestley." In this letter he says in his 
usual jocular strain, that the more he studies the 
moral part of nature the more he is disgusted ; that 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 345 

he finds men very badly constructed ; that they are 
more prone to do evil than to do good ; that they 
take great pleasure in killing one another, and that 
he doubts whether the species is worth preserving. 
He intimates that every attempt to save their souls 
is " an idle amusement." 

" As you grow older," he writes, '* you may per- 
haps repent of having murdered, in mephitic air, so 
many honest, harmless mice, and wish that, to pre- 
vent mischief, you had used boys and girls instead 
of them." 

In this singular letter he represents a young 
angel having been sent to this world, under the 
guidance of an old courier spirit. They arrive over 
the seas of Martinico, in the midst of the horrible 
fight between the fleets of Rodney and De Grasse. 

" When," he writes, " through the clouds of smoke^ 
he (the young angel) saw the fire of the guns, the 
decks covered with mangled limbs and bodies, dead 
or dying ; the ships sinking, burning, or blown into 
the air ; and the quantity of pain, misery and destruc- 
tion the crews, yet alive, were with so much eager- 
ness dealing round to one another, he turned angrily 
to his guide and said, 

"* You blundering blockhead ; you are ignorant 
of your busiiiess. You undertook to conduct me to 
the earth ; and you have brought me into hell.' 
15* 



346 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" * No sir,* said the guide, * I have made no such 
mistake. This is really the earth, and these are men. 
Devils never treat one another in this cruel manner. 
They have more sense, and more of what men (vainly) 
call humanity/ '* 

It was after the study of human nature, under 
the most favorable of possible circumstances, for 
•more than three-quarters of a century, that this phi- 
losopher wrote these terrible comments upon our 
•fallen race. 

The latter part of October, 1781, Lord Corn- 
wallis surrendered his whole army, of over seven 
thousand men, at Yorktown. The French fleet cut 
off his escape by sea. Seven thousand French 
soldiers, united with five thousand American troops, 
prevented any retreat by land. The Americans 
had thus captured two British armies. It was in 
vain for England to think of sending a third. The 
conflict was virtually decided. 

"The Prime Minister," Lord North, it is said, 
** received the tidings as he would have taken a ball 
in his breast. He threw his arms apart. He paced 
wildly up and down the room, exclaiming, from time 
to time, * Oh God ! it is all over.* " 

All England now was clamoring against the war. 
Thousands of persons had perished in the cam- 
paigns, and financial embarrassments had come to 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 347 

nearly all her institutions of industry. The English 
government made vigorous endeavors, offering great 
bribes, to induce the American envoys at Paris to 
abandon their French allies, and make a separate 
peace. Franklin wrote to Mr. Hartley, through 
whom he received these proposals, 

" I believe there is not a man in America, a few 
English tories excepted, that would not spurn the 
thought of deserting a noble and generous friend, 
for the sake of a truce with an unjust and cruel 
enemy." 

British diplomacy tried all its arts of intrigue to 
separate America from France in the negotiations 
for peace, but all in vain. The British minister, Mr. 
Grenville, in an interview with Mr. Franklin, ridi- 
culed the idea that America owed France any grati- 
tude, urging that France sought only her own selfish 
interests. 

" I told him," Franklin writes, " that I was so 
strongly impressed with the kind assistance afforded 
us by France, in our distress, and the generous and 
noble manner in which it was granted, without ex- 
acting or stipulating for a single privilege, or particu- 
lar advantage to herself in our commerce or other, 
wise, that I could never suffer myself to think of 
such reasonings for lessening the obligation." 

On the 28th of February, 1782, General Con* 



348 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

way, one of the leaders of the Opposition, the same 
who had moved the repeal of the stamp act, seven- 
teen years before, presented a resolution in the 
House of Commons that, 

"The reduction of the Colonies by force 

OF ARMS IS impracticable." 

A violent, even fierce debate ensued, which was 
continued until one o' clock in the morning. Then the 
icry oi question became general. The vote was carried 
by a majority of nineteen. This terminated the 
American war. The people of England had decided 
against it. " Acclamations," writes Wraxall, " pierced 
the roof, and might have been heard in Westminster 
Hall." 

This great victory was followed by another re- 
solve. It was an address to George IH. soliciting him 
to " Stop the prosecution of any further hostilities 
against the revolted colonies, for the purpose of re- 
ducing them to obedience by force." 

Notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, these 
votes were immediately communicated to the king, 
who was in a pitiable condition, aged, nearly blind, 
half crazed, and stubborn even to insanity, in 
his determination to subjugate the Americans. 
The poor old man, in his rage, threatened to aban- 
don England, to renounce the crown, and to 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 349 

cloister himself in his estate of Hanover. He was 
however compelled to yield, to dismiss his tory min- 
isters and to accept a whig cabinet. Edmund Burke 
wrote a warm, congratulatory letter to Franklin. * 

And now the final struggle arose respecting the 
terms of peace. The three great questions discussed, 
as diplomatic arrangements, were gradually and very 
cautiously entered into, were: i. What shall be the 
boundaries of the United States. 2. Shall the 
Americans be allowed to fish on the great banks. 3. 
What provision shall be made for the tories in 
America, whose estates have been confiscated ? 

There were many preliminary meetings, private, 
semi-official, and official. There was a general 
impression that Franklin was the man whose opinion 
would entirely control that of his countrymen. He 
was approached in every way, and the utmost en- 
deavors were made to induce the American Com- 
missioners to enter into a private treaty, without 
consulting the French ministry. 

A full account of the diplomatic conflict which 

ensued, would fill a volume. On one occasion the 

British minister, Mr. Grenville, said, 

" In case England grants America Independence.'* 
The French minister, M. de Vergennes, smiled 

* Edmund Burke wrote to Dr. Franklin that " The motion was 
the cUclaration of two hundred and thirty four members ; but it wai 
the opinion^ he thought, of the whole house." 



3 so BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

and said, " America has already won her Independ- 
ence. She does not ask it of you. There is Dr. 
Franklin ; he will answer you on that point." 

" To be sure," Franklin said, " we do not con- 
sider it necessary to bargain for that which is our 
own. We have bought our Independence at the 
expense of much blood and treasure, and are in full 
possession of it." 

Many of these preliminary interviews took place 
in Paris. The amount of money and blood which 
the pugnacious government of England had ex- 
pended in totally needless wars, can not be com- 
puted. The misery with which those wars had 
deluged this unhappy globe, God only can compre- 
hend. Mr. Richard Oswald, a retired London mer- 
chant, of vast wealth, was sent, by Lord Shelburne, 
prime minister, as a confidential messenger, to sound 
Dr. Franklin. He was frank in the extreme. 

" Peace," said he, " is absolutely necessary for 
England. The nation has been foolishly involved 
in four wars, and can no longer raise money to carry 
them on. If continued, it will be absolutely neces- 
sary to stop the payment of interest money on the 
public debt." 

Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay were soon associated 
with Dr. Franklin in these negotiations. Mr. Jay 
was in entire sympathy with Mr. Adams in his an- 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOi^ACY. 35 1 

tipathy to the French. They both assumed that 
France was meanly seeking only her own interests, 
making use of America simply as an instrument for 
the accomplishment of her selfish purposes.* 

Dr. Jared Sparks, after carefully examining, in 
the Office of Foreign Affairs in London, the corre- 
spondence of the French ministers with the Ameri- 
can envoys, during the whole war, writes, 

" After examining the subject, with all the care 
and accuracy which these means of information have 
enabled me to give to it, I am prepared to express 
my belief, most fully, that Mr. Jay was mistaken, 
both in regard to the aims of the French court and the 
,plans pursued by them to gain their supposed ends." f 

Mr. Jay was so insanely suspicious of the 
French, that he was afraid that the French ministry 
would send spies, to pick the locks in his lodgings, 
and steal his important papers. He therefore 
always carried them about his person. He also be- 
lieved that Count de Vergennes had actually pro- 
posed to the British minister, that they should 
unite their armies, seize the United States, and 
divide America between them. 

* Mr. Adams wrote, in his diary, November, 1732, '* Mr. Jay 
don't like any Frenchman. The Marquis de la Fayette is clever, 
but he is a Frenchman." 

f Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, V, 
▼iii. p. 209. 



352 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

Such were the colleagues united with Franklin, 
in the negotiations for peace. It required all his 
consummate wisdom to be able to guide affairs wise- 
ly under such difficult circumstances. It may be 
doubted whether there was another man in Amer- 
ica, who could have surmounted the obstacles over 
which he triumphed. Both of Franklin's colleagues 
regarded him with suspicion. They believed that 
he had been won over to such sympathy with the 
French, that he would be willing to sacrifice the in- 
terests of his own country to please them. They 
wrote letters home severely denouncing him ; and 
they seemed to stand more in fear of France than of 
England. 

" Dr. Franklin," wrote Mr. Adams, " is very 
staunch against the tories ; more decided, a great 
deal, upon that point, than Mr. Jay or myself." 

The British ministers insisted that the confisca- 
ted estates of the American tories should be restored 
to them, and all their losses reimbursed. Frank- 
lin silenced the demand by drawing from his pocket 
the following articles, which he proposed should be 
added to the treaty, 

" It is agreed that his Britannic Majesty will 
earnestly recommend it to his Parliament, to pro- 
vide for and make a compensation to the merchants 
and shop-keepers of Boston, whose goods and mer« 



THE STRUGGLES OF DIPLOMACY. 353 

chandise were seized and taken out of their stores, 
ware-houses and shops, by order of General Gage, 
and others of his commanding officers there ; and 
also to the inhabitants of Philadelphia for the goods 
taken away by his army there ; and to make com- 
pensation also for the tobacco, rice, indigo and ne- 
groes seized and carried off by his armies, under 
Generals Arnold, Cornwallis and others, from the 
States of Virginia, North and South Carolina and 
Georgia, and for all the vessels and cargoes belong- 
ing to the inhabitants of the said United States, 
which were stopped, seized or taken, either in the 
ports or on the seas, by his governors or by his ships 
of war, before the declaration of war against the 
United States. And it is further agreed that his 
Britannic Majesty will also earnestly recommend it 
to his Parliament to make compensation for all the 
towns, villages and farms, burnt and destroyed by 
his troops, or adherents in these United States." 

The three British commissioners were confounded 
oy these counter demands, and said not another 
word about reimbursing the A^merican tories. On 
the 30th of November, 1782, the preliminaries were 
signed, subject to the assent of the French ministers, 
who were also to submit their preliminaries to the 
American envoys. By these articles : i. The bound- 
aries were established. 2. The Americans could 



354 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

fish on the banks of Newfoundland, and cure vneif 
fish on the unsettled shores of Nova Scotia and 
Labrador. 3. Congress was to recommend to the 
several States, to restore the confiscated property of 
real British subjects. 4. Private debts were to be 
paid. 5. There were to be no more confiscations or 
prosecutions, on either side, for acts during the war. 
6. The British troops were to be withdrawn. 7. The 
navigation of the Mississippi was declared to be 
free. 8. And any place captured, after the signing 
of these articles, was to be restored. 

On the 13th of January, Count de Vergennes, 
and the British minister Mr. Fitzherbert, signed their 
preliminaries in the presence of Dr. Franklin and 
Mr. Adams. Not till then did the English order 
hostilities to be suspended, and declare the senseless 
war to be at an end. 

There was universal satisfaction in America. 
With the exception of the king and a few of his min- 
isters, there was general satisfaction in England. It 
is true that the national pride was sorely humiliated. 
But after all these woes which England had inflicted 
upon America, her own statesmen, with almost un- 
divided voice, declared that the interests of both 
nations were alike promoted, by having a few feeble 
colonies elevated into the rich and flourishing repub- 
lic of the United States. Thus the war of the 



THE STRUGGLES OF EIPLOMACY. 355 

American revolution must be pronounced to have 
been, on the part of England, which forced it, one of 
the most disastrous and senseless of those blunders 
which have ever accompanied the progress of our 
race.* 

* Contemplate the still greater blunder of our civil war. It was 
forced upon the nation by the slave traders, that they xa\.^\. perpetuate 
slavery. And now after the infliction of woes which no finite imagi- 
nation can gauge, these very slave holders declare with one voice, that 
nothing would induce them to reinstate the execrable institution. How 
much misery would have been averted, and what a comparative para- 
dise would our southern country now have been, if before, instead of 
ifter the war, the oppressed had been allowed to go free ' 



CHAPTER XV. 

Lifes Closing Scenes, 

Adyice to Thomas Paine — Scenes at Passy — Journey Uo the Coasts 
Return to America — Elected Governor of Pennsylvania — ^Attendf 
the Constitutional Convention — Proposes prayers — Remarkable 
speech — Letter to Dr. Stiles — Christ on the Cross — Last sick- 
ness and death. 

About this time some one, knowing Dr. Frank- 
lin's deistical views, presented, for his opinion, a 
treatise denouncing the idea, that there was any 
God, who manifested any interest in the affairs of 
men, that there was any Particular Providence, 
Though Franklin did not accept the idea, that Jesus 
Christ was a divine messenger, and that the Bible 
was a supernatural revelation of God's will, he cer- 
tainly did not, in his latter years, deny that there 
was a God, who superintended the affairs of this world, 
and whom it was proper to worship. It is generally 
supposed that Thomas Paine was the author of this 
treatise, and that it was a portion of his Age of Rea- 
son. Franklin, in his memorable reply, wrote, 

*' 1 have read your manuscript with some atten- 



LIFE'S CLOSING SCENES. 357 

tion. By the argument it contains against a particu- 
lar Providence, though you allow a geiteral Provi- 
dence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. 
For without the belief of a providence that takes 
cognizance of, guard-', and guides and may favor par- 
ticular persons, there is no motive to worship a deity, 
to fear his displeasure or to pray for his protection. 
I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, 
though you seem to desire it. At present I shall 
only give you my opinion that, though your reason- 
ings are subtile, and may prevail with some readers, 
you will not succeed so as to change the general sen- 
timents of mankind on that subject ; and the conse- 
quence of printing this piece will be, a great deal of 
odium drawn upon yourself; mischief to you and no 
benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, 
spits in his own face. 

" I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt 
unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before 
it is seen by any other person ; whereby you will 
save yourself a great deal of mortification, by the ene- 
mies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good 
deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked 
with religion^ what would they be if without it,** 

Franklin testifies to the remarkable courtesy 
which characterized all the movements of the French 
minister, during these protracted and delicate nego- 



358 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

tiations. The definitive treaty was signed on the 3d 
of September, 1783. It was unanimously ratified by 
Congress on the 14th of January, 1784. The king 
of England gave it his signature on the 9th of April. 
Thus two years and three months passed between 
the beginning of negotiations and the conclusion of 
the treaty of peace. 

At the termination of the war crowds of English- 
men flocked to Paris. Franklin was then recognized 
as incomparably the most illustrious man on the 
continent of Europe. His apartments were ever 
thronged with men of highest note from all the na- 
tions. He was then seventy-eight years of age, suf- 
fering severely from the gout and the gravel. He 
often received his guests in his bed chamber, sitting 
in his night gown, wrapped in flannels, and reclining 
on a pillow. Yet his mind retained all its brilliance. 
All who saw him were charmed. Mr. Baynes wrote, 

** Of all the celebrated persons whom, in my life, 
I have charced to see. Dr. Franklin, both from his 
appearance and his conversation, seemed to me the 
most remarkable. His venerable, patriarchal appear- 
ance, the simplicity of his manner and language, and 
the novelty of his observations impressed me as one 
of the most extraordinary men that ever existed. 

At this time he wrote several essays, which are 
esteemed among the best of his writings. He was 



LIFE'S CLOSING SCENES. 359 

awaiting permission from Congress to return to 
America. His son, the governor, who was receiv- 
ing a pension of eight hundred pounds from the 
British Government, came over from England to 
his illustrious father, soliciting reconciliation. This 
was after the separation of many years. Frank- 
lin responded kindly, though he said that nothing 
had ever wounded him so keenly as to find himself 
deserted in his old age, by his only son ; and to see 
him taking up arms against a cause, upon which he 
had staked life, fortune and honor. 

A year passed before Franklin was recalled. He 
was then so feeble that he could not walk, and could 
only ride in a litter. Mr. Jefferson succeeded him. 
Upon his arrival in Paris, the Count de Vergennes 
said, 

" You replace Dr. Franklin, I understand." 

" No ! *' Mr. Jefferson replied, " I succeed him 
No man can replace him." 

Franklin's infirmities were such that he could not 
call upon the king or the minister for an audience 
of leave. He, however, wrote to Count de Ver- 
gennes a very grateful and affectionate letter, in 
which he said, 

" May I beg the favor of you, sir, to express re- 
spectfully for me, to his majesty, the deep sense I 
have of all the inestimable benefits his goodness 



36c BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

has conferred on my country ; a sentiment that it 
will be the business of the little remainder of the life 
now left me, to impress equally on the minds of all 
my countrymen. My sincere prayers are that God 
may shower down his blessings on the king, the 
queen, their children and all the royal family, to the 
latest generations." 

The reply was equally cordial and affectionate. 
As a parting gift the king sent Franklin his portrait, 
decorated with four hundred and eight diamonds. 
Its estimated value was ten thousand dollars. 

On the I2th of July, 1785, FrankHn, accompanied 
by many admiring friends in carriages, commenced 
his slow journey in a litter, from Passy to Havre. 
It was four o'clock in the afternoon. The litter was 
borne by two mules. The first night they stopped 
at St. Germain. Thence the journey was continued 
at the rate of about eighteen miles a day. The mo- 
tion of the litter did not seriously incommode him. 
The cardinal of Rochefoucald, archbishop of Rouen, 
insisted upon his accepting the hospitality of his man- 
sion at Gaillon. It was a superb chateau, command- 
ing a magnificent prospect, with galleries crowdeJ 
with paintings and the most valuable works of art. 

** The cardinal," writes Franklin, " is much re- 
spected, and beloved by the people of this country ; 
bearing in all respects, a most excellent character." 



LIFE'S CLOSING SCENES. 36 1 

Though entreated to prolong his visit, Franklin 
resumed his journey at an early hour the next morn- 
ing. At Rouen he was again received with the most 
flatteiing attentions. The elite of the city gave a 
veiy brilliant supper in his honor. Thus journeying 
in a truly triumphant march, Franklin reached Havre 
on the 1 8th of July. After a delay of three days he 
crossed the channel to Southampton. His old friends 
came in crowds, and from great distances, to see him. 
Even the British government had the courtesy to 
send an order exempting his effects from custom- 
house duties. 

It will be remembered that Franklin was a re- 
markable swimmer. There are some human bodies 
much more buoyant than others. He records the sin- 
gular fact that, taking a warm, salt water bath here, 
he fell asleep floating on his back, and did not awake 
for an hour. *' This," he writes, " is a thing which I 
never did before, and would hardly have thought 
possible." 

On the 28th of July, 1785, the ship spread her 
sails. The voyage lasted seven weeks. This extra- 
ordinary man, then seventy-nine years of age, wrote, 
on the passage, three essays, which are estimated 
among the most useful and able of any which ema- 
nated from his pen. 

On the 13th of September the ship entered Dd- 
. 16 



362 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

aware Bay, and the next morning cast anchor oppo 
site Philadelphia. He wrote, 

*' My son-in-law came with a boat for us. We 
landed at Market street wharf, where we were re- 
ceived by a crowd of people with huzzahs, and ac- 
companied with acclamations, quite to my door. 
Found my family well. God be praised and thanked 
for all his mercies." 

The Assembly was in session, and immediately 
voted him a congratulatory address. Washington 
also wrote to him a letter of cordial welcome. The 
long sea voyage proved very beneficial to his health. 
He was immediately elected to the Supreme Execu- 
tive, and was chosen chairman of that body. It is ev- 
ident that he was gratified by this token of popular 
regard. He wrote to a friend, 

" I had not firmness enough to resist the unan- 
imous desire of my country folk ; and I find myself 
harnessed again in their service for another year. 
They engrossed the prime of my life. They have 
eaten my flesh and seem resolved now to pick m> 
bones." 

Soon after he was elected President, or as we 
should now say, Governor of Pennsylvania. The 
vote rested with the Executive Council and the As- 
sembly, seventy-seven in all. He received seventy- 
•six votes. Notwithstanding the ravages of war, 



life's closing scenes. 363; 

peace came with her usual blessings in her hand. 
The Torj' journals of England, were presenting de- 
plorable views of the ruin of the country since 
deprived of the beneficial government of the British 
cabinet. Franklin wrote to his old friend, David 
Hartley, 

" Your newspapers are filled with accounts of 
distresses and miseries, that these states are plunged 
into, since their separation from Britain. You may 
believe me when I tell you that there is no truth in 
those accounts. I find all property in land and 
houses, augmented vastly in value ; that of houses 
in town at least four-fold. The crops have been 
plentiful ; and yet the produce sells high, to the 
great profit of the farmer. Working people have 
plenty of employ, and high pay for their labor." 

There were many imperfections attending the old 
Confederacy. In the year 1787, a convention met 
in Philadelphia, to frame a new constitution. There 
was strong opposition to this movement. Wash- 
ington and Franklin were both delegates. Washing- 
ton took the chair. The good nature and wisdom 
of Franklin ruled the house. The convention met 
in the State House. Franklin, eighty-one years of 
age, was regularly in his seat, five hours a day, for 
four months. He was thoroughly democratic in his 
views, and opposed every measure which had any 



364 BENJAMIN FRANKl.N. 

tendency to extend aristocratic privilege. He had 
seen that the British government was in the hands 
of the nobles. And silent, as prudence rendered it 
necessary for him to be, in reference to the arbitrary 
government of France, he could not but see that 
the peasantry were subject to the most intolerable 
abuses. This led him to detest a monarchy, and to 
do every thing in his power to place the government 
of this country in the hands of the people. 

Much time was occupied in deciding upon the 
terms of union between the smaller and the larger 
States. It will be remembered that this was the 
subject of very excited debates in the convention 
of 1776. The discussion was earnest, often acrimo- 
nious. Such bitterness of feeling was engendered 
that, for some time it was feared that no union could 
be effected. 

It is evident that Franklin, as he approached the 
grave, became more devout, and that he lost all con- 
fidence in the powers of philosophical speculations 
to reform or regenerate fallen man. He saw that 
the interposition of a divine power was needed to 
allay the intense excitement in the convention, and 
to lead the impassioned members to act under the 
conviction that they were responsible to God. On 
the 28th of June, this venerable, patriarchal man 
offered the following memorable resolve : 



LIFE'S CLOSING SCENES. 365 

" Resolved, That henceforth prayers, implc ring 
the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our 
deliberations, be held in the Assembly every morn- 
ing before we proceed to business ; and that one or 
more of the clergy of this city be requested to offici- 
ate in that service." 

The speech which accompanied this motion will 
forever be conspicuous in our annals. He said : 

" Mr. President ! The small progress we have 
made, after four or five weeks close attendence and 
continual reasonings with each other ; our different 
sentiments on almost every question, is, methinks, a 
melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human 
understanding. 

" In this situation of this Assembly groping, as 
it were, in the dark, to find political truth, and scarce 
able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has 
it happened, sir, that we have not yet hitherto once 
thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights 
to illuminate our understandings? 

" In the beginning of the contest with Britain, 
when we were sensible of danger, we had daily 
prayers, in this room, for divine protection ! Our 
prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously 
answered. All of us, who were engaged in the 
struggle, must have observed frequent instances of a 
superintending Providence in our favor. To that 



366 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

kind Providence we owe thfs happy opportunity of 
consulting, in peace, on the means of establishing 
our future national felicity. And have we now for- 
gotten that powerful friend ? or do we imagine that 
we no longer need his assistance ? 

" I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer 
I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth ; 
That God governs in the affairs of men. And if a 
sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, 
is it probable that an Empire can rise without his 
aid ? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred 
Writings, that * except the Lord build the house, 
they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe 
this. And I also believe that, without His concur- 
ring aid, we shall succeed in this political building, no 
better than the building of Babel." 

It is almost incomprehensible that, under the 
influence of such an appeal, the great majority of the 
Assembly should have voted against seeking divine aid. 
In a note appended to this speech, Frankhn writes, 

" The convention, except three or four persons, 
thought prayers unnecessary."* 

* Mr. Parton undoubtedly suggested the true reason for this 
l^&Qge refusal to seek divine guidance. He writes, 

• I think it not improbable that the cause of this opposition to • 
proposal so seldom negatived in the United States, was the preva- 
lence in the Convention of the French tone of feeling with regard to 
religious observances. If so, it was the more remarkable to see the 
aged Franklin, who was a deist at fifteen, and had just returned from 



life's closing scenes. 367 

The convention came to a triumphant dose, early 
In September, 1787. Behind the speaker's chair there 
was a picture of the Rising Sun. While the mem- 
bers were signing, Franklin turned to Mr. Madison, 
and said, 

" I have often, in the course of the session, and 
the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, 
looked at the picture behind the President, without 
being able to tell whether the sun were rising or set- 
ting. But now at length, I have the happiness to 
know that it is a rising, not a setting sun. 

Washington was universally revered. Franklin 
was both revered and loved. It was almost the uni- 
versal feeling that, next to Washington, orr nation 
was indebted to Franklin for its Indf.f endence. 
"Franklin occupied, in the arduous field of diplomacy, 
the position which Washington occupied 'it the head 
of our armies. It was certain that Frai klin had, at 
one period of his life, entirely renouncec his belief in 
Christianity, as a divine revelation. 1 lis christian 
friends, numbering hundreds, encourage- 1 by some of 
the utterances of his old age, were anxio is to know if 
he had returned to the faith of his fathen. Dr. Ezra 
Stiles, President of Yale College, was a friend of 
Franklin's of many years standing. When the 

France, coming back to the sentiments of his ancestors." — Pat Ion* t 
Franklin y<A. 2, p. 575. 



368 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

revered patriot had reached his eighty-fifth year Dr 
Stiles wrote, soliciting his portrait for the college 
library. In this letter, he says, 

** I wish to know the opinion of my venerable 
fiiend, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He will not 
impute this to impertinence ; or improper curiosity 
in one, who, for so many years, has continued to 
love, esteem and reverence his abilities and literary 
character, with an ardor and affection bordering 
on adoration." 

What Dr. Stiles, and the community in general, 
wished to know was, whether Dr. Franklin recog- 
nized the Divine, supernatural origin of Christianity. 
Franklin evaded the question. This evasion of 
course indicates that he did not recognize, in the 
religion of Jesus, the authority of, " Thus saith the 
Lord." But he wished to avoid wounding the feel- 
ings of his christian friends by this avowal. He 
wrote, 

" This is my creed. I believe in God, the Creator 
of the Universe ; that he governs it by his Provi- 
dence ; that he ought to worshiped ; that the most 
acceptable service we render to him, is doing good 
to his other children ; that the soul of man is immor- 
tal, and will be treated with j astice in another life, 
respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be fun- 
damental points in all sound religion, and I regard 



LIFE'S CLOSING SCENES. 369 

them as you do, in whatever sect I meet with 
them. 

** As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom 
you particularly desire, I think his system of morals 
and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the 
world ever saw, or is like to see. But I apprehend it 
has received various corrupting changes, and I have, 
with most of the Dissenters in England, some doubt3 
as to his Divinity ; though it is a question I do not 
dogmatize upon, having never studied it. And I 
think it needless to busy myself with it now, when 
I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth 
with less trouble. 

" I see however no harm in its being believed, if 
that belief has the good consequence, as probably it 
has, of making his doctrines more respected and ob- 
served ; especially as I do not perceive that the 
Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the un- 
believers in his government of this world, with any 
peculiar marks of his displeasure. I shall only add 
respecting myself, that, having experienced the 
goodness of that Being, in conducting me prosper- 
ously through a long life, I have no doubt of its con- 
tinuance in the next, though without the smallest 
conceit of meriting such goodness." 

He then adds the following suggestive postscript. 
•* I confide that you will not expose me to criti- 



370 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

cism and censures, by pubfishing any part of this 
communication to you. I have ever let others enjoy 
their religious sentiments, without reflecting on 
them, for those that appeared to me unsupportable, 
or even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great 
variety, have experienced my good will, in assisting 
them with subscriptions for the building their new 
places of worship. And, as I have never opposed 
any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the 
world in peace with them all." 

Much of his time, in these hours of sickness, he 
employed in writing his Autobiography. The suffer- 
ings he endured were at times very severe. But 
when he spoke of his approaching departure, it was 
with composure. At one time, when his daughter 
expressed the wish that he might yet live many 
years, he replied ** I hope not." 

A clerical friend visited him, just as one of his 
paroxysms of pain came on. As his friend in conse- 
quence was about to retire, he said, 

" Oh no ; don't go away. These pains will soon 
be over. They are for my good. And besides, what 
are the pains of a moment in comparison with the 
pleasures of eternity." 

There was, in one of the chambers of his house, 
a very beautiful painting of Christ on the Cross. He 
requested his nurse, a very worthy woman, of the 



life's closing scenes. 371 

Friends* peisuasion, to bring it down, and place it 
directly before him. The Rev. David Ritter, a great 
admirer of Franklin, called to see him. He had, 
however, but a few moments before, breathed his 
last Sarah Humphries, the nurse, invited David 
into the chamber, to view the remains. Mr. Ritter 
expressed surprise in seeing the picture of the 
Saviour on the cross occupying so conspicuous a 
position, saying, "You know, Sarah, that many 
people think that Dr. Franklin was not after this sort." 
" Yes," she replied, " but thee knows, David, that 
many make a great fuss about religion, who have 
very little. And many, who say but little, have a 
good deal. He was never satisfied, if a day passed 
away unless he had done some one a service.* 
Benjamin Franklin was one of that sort. I will tell 
thee how the picture came here. Many weeks ago, 
as he lay, he beckoned me to him, and told me of this 
picture, up stairs, and begged I would bring it to 
him. I brought it. His face brightened up, as he 
looked at it, and he said, 

• This reminds us of the exclamation of the Emperor Titus, who, at 
the close of a day in which he could not perceive that he had done 
-iny good, exclaimed, sadly, " Perdidi Diem." / have lost a day. 
Beautifully has the sentiment been expressed in the words, which it 
wccld be well for all to treasure up, 

* Count that day lost, whose low descending sun, 
Views at thy hand no worthy action done." 



372 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 

" Ay Sarah ; there is a picture worth looking at. 
That is the picture of him who came into the world 
to teach men to love one another/ " 

" After looking at it wistfully for some time, he 
said, * Sarah, set this picture up over the mantel-piece, 
right before me as I lie. I like to look at it.' 

** When I fixed it up he looked at it very much ; 
and indeed died with his eyes fixed upon it." 

However deeply Franklin, in these dying hours 
may have pondered the sublimities of Immortality — 
the Resurrection — the Judgment Throne — the Final 
Verdict — Heaven — Hell, — he was very reticent re- 
specting those themes. We certainly see none of the 
triumph of Paul, and of thousands of others, who 
have in varied language, expressed the sentiment that, 

" Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are." 

A few hours before his death, as some one urged 
him to change his position, that he might breathe 
easier he replied, ** a dying man can do nothing 
easy.'* These were his last words. He then sank 
into a lethargy, from which he passed into that sleep 
which has no earthly waking. It was eleven o'clock 
at night, April 17, 1790. He had lived eighty- four 
years, three months and eleven days. 

But no candid and charitable reader can peruse 
this narrative, without the admission that Benjamin 



. LIFES CLOSING SCENES. 373 

Franklin, notwithstanding his imperfections, was one 
of the wisest and best of all the fallen children of Adam. 
From his dying hour to the present day his memory 
has been justly cherished with reverence and affec- 
tion, throughout the civilized world. And there ia 
no fear that this verdict will ever be reversed. 



JUN 16 1904 0}fyJ^^ 



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